Qualcomm Chipset Vulnerabilities Raise Alarm Over Remote Code Execution Risk

Qualcomm Technologies has released its May 2026 security bulletin, addressing a sweeping array of vulnerabilities across its proprietary and open-source software ecosystems.

Threat actors could exploit these security gaps to compromise smartphones, automotive systems, and industrial Internet of Things devices without requiring user interaction.

The semiconductor giant is strongly urging original equipment manufacturers to deploy the actively shared patches to launched devices as soon as possible to mitigate potential exploitation risks.

The complexity of the embedded systems supply chain means that while Qualcomm has provided the necessary mitigation code, the actual deployment timeline will vary significantly across different device brands.

The latest patch rollout highlights multiple critical flaws that expose billions of connected devices to remote code execution and local privilege escalation attacks.

Qualcomm Chipset Vulnerabilities

The most severe vulnerability detailed in the advisory is CVE-2026-25254, carrying a maximum critical severity score of 9.8.

This flaw originates from improper authorization protocols within the Qualcomm Software Center, specifically affecting the SocketIO interface.

Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code across affected software center versions, granting them complete control over the application environment.

Another highly critical remote code execution flaw, CVE-2026-25293, affects the powerline communication firmware.

With a severity score of 9.6, this vulnerability stems from incorrect authorization checks that trigger a buffer overflow, allowing adjacent network attackers to execute malicious payloads.

Alongside these remote threats, Qualcomm identified severe local vectors, including CVE-2026-25262 in the primary bootloader.

This write-what-where memory corruption condition occurs when the bootloader processes a maliciously crafted executable and linkable format (ELF) file.

Although it requires physical or local access, compromising the bootloader enables threat actors to bypass fundamental secure boot protections and establish deep persistence at the hardware firmware level.

Furthermore, an exposed dangerous function in the Qualcomm Package Manager, tracked as CVE-2026-25255, presents a high-risk privilege escalation pathway via its gRPC server interface.

The scope of this security bulletin extends far beyond standard mobile platforms, deeply impacting automotive graphics processing units and wireless local area network environments.

In the automotive sector, CVE-2026-24082 exposes a high-severity use-after-free vulnerability within the open-source graphical processing components.

Memory corruption occurs when the system attempts to copy data from a freed source while executing performance counter deselect operations, potentially destabilizing vehicle infotainment or telemetry systems.

Additionally, an untrusted-pointer dereference vulnerability in the power optimization firmware, identified as CVE-2025-47408, allows memory corruption when a driver issues an input/output control with invalid buffers.

Wireless connectivity components also face significant exposure through multiple buffer over-read vulnerabilities. Flaws such as CVE-2025-47401 in the hardware abstraction layer and CVE-2025-47403 in the wireless firmware can cause transient denial-of-service conditions.

List of all CVEs addressed

Critical Severity Vulnerabilities

• CVE-2026-25254 (CVSS: 9.8): Improper authorization in the Qualcomm Software Center, leading to Remote Code Execution via the SocketIO interface.
• CVE-2026-25293 (CVSS: 9.6): Buffer overflow due to incorrect authorization in the PLC FW, allowing for remote exploitation by adjacent network attackers.
• CVE-2026-25262 (CVSS: 6.9): Write-what-where memory corruption condition in the Primary Bootloader, triggered when processing a crafted ELF file. Requires local access.

High Severity Vulnerabilities

• CVE-2026-25255 (CVSS: 8.8): Exposed dangerous function in the Qualcomm Package Manager and Qualcomm Software Center, leading to privilege escalation via a gRPC server.
• CVE-2026-24082 (CVSS: 7.8): Use-after-free vulnerability in the Automotive GPU component, causing memory corruption when copying data from a freed source during performance counter deselect operations.
• CVE-2025-47408 (CVSS: 7.8): Untrusted pointer dereference in the WINBLAST-POWER firmware, allowing memory corruption when a driver calls an IOCTL with invalid buffers.
• CVE-2025-47401 (CVSS: 6.5): Buffer over-read in the WLAN HAL causing a transient denial of service when processing target power rate tables during channel configuration.
• CVE-2025-47403 (CVSS: 6.5): Buffer over-read in the WLAN Firmware causing a transient denial of service when processing malformed fast transition response frames during wireless roaming.

Medium Severity Vulnerabilities

• CVE-2025-47405 (CVSS: 7.8): Untrusted pointer dereference in the Camera component, resulting in memory corruption when processing sensor IOCTL codes with invalid output buffers.
• CVE-2025-47407 (CVSS: 7.8): Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the DSP Service, causing memory corruption during process creation on the digital signal processor.
• CVE-2025-47404 (CVSS: 6.5): Buffer overflow without checking input size in Automotive Audio, causing memory corruption when dynamically changing an allocated buffer’s size while its contents are being modified.
• CVE-2025-47406 (CVSS: 6.1): Buffer over-read in the DSP Service leading to information disclosure while processing IOCTL handler callbacks without verifying buffer sizes.
• CVE-2026-25266 (CVSS: 5.5): Exposed dangerous function in the Windows WLAN Host, leading to memory corruption while processing IOCTL commands when the device is in a power-save state.

These memory safety issues manifest during channel configuration or when processing malformed fast transition response frames during wireless roaming.

Given the extensive list of affected chipsets, spanning from elite mobile platforms to networking modules, users remain highly dependent on downstream manufacturers to package and distribute these critical security updates to end-user devices to maintain digital security.

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