CVE-2024-38404
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 · uneditedTransient DOS when registration accept OTA is received with incorrect ciphering key data IE in modem.
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 confidenceA denial of service vulnerability exists in modem firmware where processing a registration accept OTA (Over-The-Air) message containing an incorrectly formatted ciphering key data Information Element (IE) causes a transient failure, rendering the modem temporarily 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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Qualcomm modem firmwareCheck system documentation, driver information, or modem firmware version via AT commands (e.g., AT+CGMR) or vendor-specific tools. Look for model numbers: Ar8035, Fastconnect 7800, Qca6584au, Qca6698aq, Qca8081, Qca8337, Qcc710, or Qcn6224.Affected if Any of these Qualcomm firmware components are present in the system
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Verify modem responsivenessSend AT commands to the modem (e.g., AT, AT+CREG?, AT+CGREG?) or ping the modem interface. Check for timeouts or lack of response.Affected if The modem fails to respond to queries or shows intermittent unresponsiveness
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Capture and inspect OTA registration messagesUse network protocol analyzers or modem debugging tools to capture over-the-air messages. Examine registration accept messages for the ciphering key data Information Element (IE) field - look for malformed or truncated data in the ciphering key portion.Affected if Registration accept OTA messages contain incorrectly formatted ciphering key data IE
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Review modem logs for registration failuresCheck modem event logs, system logs, or vendor diagnostic outputs for entries indicating registration accept processing failures, ciphering key parsing errors, or modem resets.Affected if Logs show failures related to processing registration accept messages or ciphering key IE errors
A user is affected if the system contains any of the listed Qualcomm modem firmware components and the modem exhibits unresponsive behavior or receives malformed OTA registration messages with incorrect ciphering key data.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply vendor-supplied firmware patches when available; until then, monitor network traffic for malformed OTA registration messages targeting the modem component.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-38404 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-38404 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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