Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-43060

Memory Safety in Qualcomm Ar8035 Firmware

Published
03 March 2025
Modified
06 March 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0011 2th percentile
Risk Priority 54 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-43060 is a high-severity Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset (CWE-823) vulnerability in Qualcomm Ar8035 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 2th 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.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2024-43060 is a memory corruption vulnerability that occurs during voice activation when sound model parameters are loaded from the High-Level Operating System (HLOS) to the Audio Digital Signal Processor (ADSP) in Qualcomm components. It is associated with CWE-823 (Use of Out-of-bounds Read) and CWE-119 (Buffer Overflow), carrying a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The issue was published on March 3, 2025.

A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability with low attack complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation could result in high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution or system compromise within the affected ADSP context.

Qualcomm has addressed this issue in its March 2025 security bulletin, available at https://docs.qualcomm.com/product/publicresources/securitybulletin/march-2025-bulletin.html, which provides details on patches and affected products for mitigation. Security practitioners should apply the recommended updates promptly to vulnerable Qualcomm platforms.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Memory corruption during voice activation, when sound model parameters are loaded from HLOS to ADSP.

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-2023-43534Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2023-33079Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-45573Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2023-33106Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-21475Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-43061Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2024-49840Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2024-23369Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035
CVE-2024-33036Same product: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6900
CVE-2024-45557Same product: Qualcomm Ar8035

Affected Assets

qualcomm
ar8035 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
fastconnect 6900 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
fastconnect 7800 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8295p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6574au firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6696 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca8081 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca8337 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca9367 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca9377 firmware
all versions
+31 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