Aug 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Cellular Safety
Google has launched safety updates to handle a number of safety flaws in Android, together with fixes for 2 Qualcomm bugs that have been flagged as actively exploited within the wild.
The vulnerabilities embody CVE-2025-21479 (CVSS rating: 8.6) and CVE-2025-27038 (CVSS rating: 7.5), each of which have been disclosed alongside CVE-2025-21480 (CVSS rating: 8.6), by the chipmaker again in June 2025.
CVE-2025-21479 pertains to an incorrect authorization vulnerability within the Graphics part that might result in reminiscence corruption resulting from unauthorized command execution in GPU microcode.
CVE-2025-27038, however, use-after-free vulnerability within the Graphics part that might end in reminiscence corruption whereas rendering graphics utilizing Adreno GPU drivers in Chrome.
There are nonetheless no particulars on how these shortcomings have been weaponized in real-world assaults, however Qualcomm famous on the time that “there are indications from Google Risk Evaluation Group that CVE-2025-21479, CVE-2025-21480, CVE-2025-27038 could also be beneath restricted, focused exploitation.”
On condition that related flaws in Qualcomm chipsets have been exploited by industrial spy ware distributors like Variston and Cy4Gate prior to now, it is suspected that the aforementioned shortcomings may have been abused in an identical context.
The three vulnerabilities have since been added to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company’s (CISA) Recognized Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, requiring federal companies to use the updates by June 24, 2025.
Google’s August 2025 patch additionally resolves two high-severity privilege escalation flaws in Android Framework (CVE-2025-22441 and CVE-2025-48533) and a important bug within the System part (CVE-2025-48530) that might end in distant code execution when mixed with different flaws with out requiring any extra privileges or consumer interplay.
The tech big has made obtainable two patch ranges, 2025-08-01 and 2025-08-05, with the latter additionally incorporating fixes for closed-source and third-party parts from Arm and Qualcomm. Android gadget customers are suggested to use the updates as and once they develop into obtainable to remain protected towards potential threats.
