Ar8035 FirmwareOperating system · Qualcomm

CVE-2023-33100

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-04-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Transient DOS while processing DL NAS Transport message when message ID is not defined in the 3GPP specification.

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 · moderate confidence

A denial of service vulnerability exists in the processing of Downlink (DL) NAS Transport messages. When a message containing a Message ID that is not defined in the 3GPP specification is received, the device fails to handle it gracefully, causing a transient denial of service. This indicates insufficient input validation or error handling for undefined protocol elements.

MitigationImplement proper validation and error handling for DL NAS Transport messages with undefined Message IDs, ensuring the device can safely reject or ignore malformed messages without crashing or becoming unresponsive.

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
Ar8035 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Fastconnect 6700 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Fastconnect 6900 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Fastconnect 7800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qca6174a FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qca6584au FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qca6698aq FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Qca8081 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 network chipset or WiFi adapter model
    Check device specifications, lspci output for network devices, or lsusb for USB无线 adapters. Look for Qualcomm product names: Ar8035, QCA6174a, QCA6584au, QCA6698aq, QCA8081, or Fastconnect 6700/6900/7800.
    Affected if The device uses any of the listed Qualcomm chips or firmware modules.
  2. Check firmware or driver version string
    For WiFi adapters, use 'iw list' or 'lspci -v' to retrieve firmware version information. For cellular/baseband, check AT command outputs or manufacturer firmware release notes.
    Affected if The firmware version string matches any of the affected products (Ar8035, Fastconnect 6700/6900/7800, Qca6174a, Qca6584au, Qca6698aq, Qca8081).
  3. Identify NAS Transport message handling capability
    Determine if the device implements NAS (Non-Access Stratum) protocol stack, typically found in cellular modems or WiFi 6/6E/7 devices using Qualcomm Fastconnect. This can be confirmed by checking if the device processes 3GPP NAS messages.
    Affected if The device processes DL NAS Transport messages as part of its normal cellular or WiFi operation.
  4. Verify if the device accepts external DL NAS messages
    Inspect network logging or protocol traces (using Wireshark or cellular protocol analyzers) for DL NAS Transport message processing. Check if the device can receive NAS messages from the network infrastructure.
    Affected if The device processes DL NAS Transport messages from the network without filtering or validating Message IDs against the 3GPP specification.

A device is affected if it runs any version of the listed Qualcomm firmware (Ar8035, Fastconnect 6700/6900/7800, Qca6174a, Qca6584au, Qca6698aq, Qca8081) and processes DL NAS Transport messages from the network.

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

Implement proper validation and error handling for DL NAS Transport messages with undefined Message IDs, ensuring the device can safely reject or ignore malformed messages without crashing or becoming unresponsive.

Fix this in Ar8035 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2023-33100 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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