Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-43534

Memory Safety in Qualcomm Ar8035 Firmware

Published
06 February 2024
Modified
11 August 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0026 18th percentile
Risk Priority 63 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-43534 is a high-severity Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset (CWE-823) vulnerability in Qualcomm Ar8035 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 18th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Memory corruption while validating the TID to Link Mapping action request frame, when a station connects to an access point.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-43060Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2023-33079Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2023-33106Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2023-43520Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-21475Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-49840Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2024-45573Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2024-23369Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2023-43553Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-45584Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035

Affected Assets

qualcomm
ar8035 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
fastconnect 6900 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
fastconnect 7800 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
flight rb5 5g platform firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8255p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8650p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8775p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qamsrv1h firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qamsrv1m firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6391 firmware
all versions
+56 more product configuration(s) — see NVD for full list

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis and fuzzing) directly finds unsafe pointer arithmetic before deployment.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate safe pointer usage and compiler/runtime checks that stop the weakness from being introduced.

Security engineering principles can require bounds-checked pointer arithmetic or safe language constructs that structurally avoid out-of-range offsets.

Process isolation confines damage from invalid pointer offsets to a single address space, reducing overall impact.

Input validation directly enforces bounds checking that stops out-of-bounds reads/writes from being introduced or reached.

Memory-protection controls limit the blast radius of an out-of-range pointer dereference without preventing or detecting the coding error itself.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require bounds-checked pointer arithmetic and static analysis to prevent out-of-range offsets.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

SAST/DAST tools used for vulnerability identification can surface this class of coding defect.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect out-of-range pointer offsets before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and bounds checking that can prevent out-of-range pointer offsets.

prevents

Application security requirements include memory-safety rules that reduce pointer-offset errors.

degrades

Secure architecture principles promote safe pointer handling and memory layout controls.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and require bounds checks.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220726 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be configured to at least OptOut. prevents CWE-823

References