Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chips have been said to raise concern for users after being subjected to a vulnerability CVE-2020-11292 that allows hackers to extract personal information from their mobile devices.
The research report published by cyber threat intelligence provider Check Point Research clarified the security concerns related to Qualcomm mobile station modem (MSM) chips, including the latest 5G capable version.
The company said that hackers could inject malicious code into the chips and extract useful information such as call history, chats, and even listen to their conversations. Qualcomm offers various chips from 2G to 5G, which are used by major giants such as Samsung, LG, OnePlus, Xiaomi, etc. The Check Point Research (CPR) conducted research in August 2020 and found more than 400 vulnerabilities on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon DSP chip, which raised an alarming concern for mobile usability.
Role of MSM
MSM is used for high spec devices like smartphones. These are said to support enhanced peripherals like 4G LTE as well as high-definition smartphone and tablet device recording. Today, hackers are looking for all the possible ways to enter the user device and extract their personal information, and theMSM data facilities viaQMIse MSM chips become a major source for them.
MSM chip’s processor also feature two-way Android communication, which allows communication between the software components as well as via peripheral systems like the camera device, plus there the fingerprint scan tools.
Exploiting MSM is a gateway to user information.
The best method in order to obtain user information is through adding malicious code into the modem from Android, which hackers can easily do after exploiting MSM data services through QMI.
Once the hackers gain access to the user information, they can easily extract call information, message, listen to the conversation, and even unlock the SIM used by the mobile devices to keep the contact information secure and store information about network authentication. Uselesmeilleursvpn to safeguard your personal data.
Measures were taken by Qualcomm to resolve the concerns
After the report published by Check Point Research, Qualcomm has introduced several security updates to overcome the issues with raised and introduced the updates to all the vendors in December 2020.
Qualcomm has sent the security patches to OEMs, which means Android devices have the latest security updates, which keeps their latest devices protected against all the concerns. However, users who haven’t switched to devices that support the latest Android updates continue to compromise their privacy and important data. Adding the facts published by a leading research organization, an estimate of 19% of users still continue with Android Pie 9.0 (2018), with 9% users with Android 8.1 Oreo ( 2017).
