Apq8009 FirmwareOperating system · Qualcomm

CVE-2020-11141

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
86/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
u'Buffer over-read issue in Bluetooth estack due to lack of check for invalid length of L2cap configuration request received from peer device.' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer Electronics Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wired Infrastructure and Networking in APQ8009, APQ8053, QCA6390, QCN7605, SA415M, SA515M, SC8180X, SDX55, SM8250

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Buffer over-read vulnerability in the Bluetooth estack where L2CAP configuration request packets with invalid length fields are not validated, allowing a nearby attacker to read beyond buffer boundaries and potentially disclose sensitive memory contents.

MitigationApply Qualcomm firmware/hardware updates for affected chipsets. Until patches are available, limit Bluetooth exposure and disable Bluetooth when not needed in sensitive environments.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Apq8009 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Apq8053 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qca6390 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qcn7605 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Sa415m FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Sa515m FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Sc8180x FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Sdx55 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the Qualcomm chipset in use
    Check system information or boot logs for the chipset model. On Linux, run 'dmesg | grep -i qualcomm' or check '/proc/cpuinfo' for hardware identifiers.
    Affected if The chipset matches Apq8009, Apq8053, Qca6390, Qcn7605, Sa415m, Sa515m, Sc8180x, or Sdx55
  2. Verify Bluetooth is enabled
    Run 'hciconfig' or 'bluetoothctl show' to check if the Bluetooth adapter is powered up and active.
    Affected if Bluetooth is powered on and the hci0 interface is in UP state
  3. Confirm Bluetooth stack is running
    Check if the Bluetooth daemon is active: 'systemctl status bluetooth' or 'ps aux | grep bluetooth'. Also verify with 'rfkill list' that Bluetooth is not blocked.
    Affected if The Bluetooth daemon (bluetoothd) is running and not blocked by rfkill
  4. Check if device accepts Bluetooth connections
    Use 'hcitool con' to list active connections, or 'hcitool scan' to see if device is discoverable. Check with 'hciconfig' whether the adapter is in SCAN or PSCAN mode.
    Affected if The device is discoverable, connectable, or has active L2CAP connections

A device is affected if it uses any of the listed Qualcomm chipsets (Apq8009, Apq8053, Qca6390, Qcn7605, Sa415m, Sa515m, Sc8180x, Sdx55) and has Bluetooth enabled, since all firmware versions of these chipsets are vulnerable to the L2CAP buffer over-read.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Qualcomm firmware/hardware updates for affected chipsets. Until patches are available, limit Bluetooth exposure and disable Bluetooth when not needed in sensitive environments.

Fix this in Apq8009 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation24.0 h
  • Testing16.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
56.0 hours of engineering $9,760
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-11141 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data