Missing AuthenticationWeakness · CWE-306

CVE-2025-20702

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
93/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
In the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK, there is a possible unauthorized access to the RACE protocol. This could lead to remote escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.

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

The Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK contains a vulnerability where the RACE (Radio Access Control Engineering) protocol can be accessed without proper authorization. This allows an attacker to achieve remote privilege escalation by sending specially crafted commands to the RACE interface, potentially executing privileged operations or accessing sensitive functions without authentication.

MitigationRestrict access to the RACE protocol by implementing proper authentication and authorization checks, or disable RACE functionality in production firmware builds. Update to SDK versions that secure RACE protocol access.

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

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
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK usage
    Determine if your product or firmware uses the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK. Check firmware BOM, SDK documentation, or library dependencies for Airoha components.
    Affected if Your device firmware or software explicitly includes Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK components.
  2. Locate RACE protocol interface
    Search firmware image or SDK files for RACE-related binaries, services, or network ports. Common indicators: 'race', 'RACE daemon', or port configurations used by RACE protocol (consult SDK documentation for specific file names or paths).
    Affected if RACE protocol binaries, services, or listening ports are present in the firmware or SDK deployment.
  3. Verify RACE protocol is enabled
    Check configuration files, build settings, or runtime flags that control RACE functionality. Look for settings that enable/disable RACE daemon or interface access.
    Affected if RACE protocol is enabled or accessible in the current firmware configuration.
  4. Inspect RACE authentication mechanism
    Examine SDK source code or firmware disassembly for authentication checks before RACE command processing. Look for functions that validate user credentials or session tokens before allowing privileged operations.
    Affected if No authentication or authorization check is performed before executing RACE commands, or the check is missing/disabled.

You are affected if your device runs an Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK with the RACE protocol enabled and accessible without proper authentication checks.

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

Restrict access to the RACE protocol by implementing proper authentication and authorization checks, or disable RACE functionality in production firmware builds. Update to SDK versions that secure RACE protocol access.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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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-2025-20702 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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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