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high advisory

Qualcomm Memory Corruption Vulnerability CVE-2026-21382

CVE-2026-21382 is a memory corruption vulnerability related to handling power management requests with improperly sized input/output buffers, potentially leading to code execution.

CVE-2026-21382 describes a memory corruption vulnerability in Qualcomm products. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of power management requests with inadequately sized input/output buffers, which could lead to a buffer overflow (CWE-120). This vulnerability was reported by Qualcomm, Inc., and assigned a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8. While the specific affected products are not detailed in the provided source, the advisory indicates it is part of the April 2026 Qualcomm security bulletin. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution within the context of the affected power management component. Defenders should monitor for unusual activity related to power management processes and prioritize patching when updates become available.

Attack Chain

  1. An attacker gains local access to a vulnerable Qualcomm device.
  2. The attacker crafts a malicious power management request with an oversized input buffer.
  3. The crafted request is sent to the affected power management component.
  4. The component processes the request without properly validating the buffer size.
  5. Data from the oversized input buffer overflows into adjacent memory regions.
  6. The attacker overwrites critical data structures or executable code within memory.
  7. The system attempts to execute the corrupted code, leading to a crash or arbitrary code execution.
  8. The attacker gains control of the device or escalates privileges.

Impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-21382 could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable Qualcomm device. Although the number of affected devices and specific sectors are not specified in the provided source, the impact of successful exploitation includes potential device compromise, data theft, or denial of service. Due to the high CVSS score, unpatched systems are at significant risk.

Recommendation

  • Monitor process creation events for power management-related processes spawning unexpected child processes, using a rule similar to the example below.
  • Analyze network connections from power management-related processes for suspicious outbound traffic to unusual ports or IPs.
  • Investigate any crashes or unexpected reboots on Qualcomm-based devices, correlating them with power management events in system logs.
  • Monitor for registry modifications made by power management processes, specifically those related to loading custom drivers or libraries.
  • Review and apply the security updates outlined in the Qualcomm security bulletin for April 2026 to patch CVE-2026-21382 (https://docs.qualcomm.com/product/publicresources/securitybulletin/april-2026-bulletin.html).

Detection coverage 2

Suspicious Child Process of Power Management Service

medium

Detects a power management service spawning an unusual child process, which may indicate exploitation or compromise.

sigma tactics: execution techniques: T1059.001 sources: process_creation, windows

Detect Power Management Process Accessing Sensitive Memory Regions

high

Detects power management processes attempting to write to protected or system memory regions.

sigma tactics: privilege_escalation techniques: T1068 sources: file_event, windows

Detection queries are kept inside the platform. Get full rules →

Indicators of compromise

1

url

TypeValue
urlhttps://docs.qualcomm.com/product/publicresources/securitybulletin/april-2026-bulletin.html