Dangerous bug in WiFi and Bluetooth chips discovered, potential data theft

Dangerous bug in WiFi and Bluetooth chips discovered

As reported by colleagues at Bleeping Computer, researchers from the universities of Darmstadt, Brescia, CNIT and Secure Mobile Networking Lab have published an article proving how it is possible to extract passwords and manipulate traffic on a WiFi chip via a Bluetooth component.

In fact, although most modern electronic devices are SoC-based with separate security controls for Bluetooth, Wifi, and LTE, they often share the same resources, such as antennas or spectrum. This choice allows to increase speeds and decrease latency and power consumption, but at the same time it could give potential attackers the ability to execute arbitrary code, read memory or conduct DoS attacks.

Researchers have discovered that by accessing one of the chips it is possible to conduct lateral attacks also to the others who share the same memory. The tests have been successfully conducted on SoCs made by some well-known manufacturers, such as Broadcom, Cypress and Silicon Labs (present on millions of devices around the world).

The problem can only be solved through a new revision hardware and therefore a simple firmware update would not be enough. In fact, some manufacturers had already released some patches to mitigate some bugs of this type, but it was not enough.

As stated by the same researchers:

Over-the-air attacks via the Bluetooth chip are not mitigated by the current patches. Only the Bluetooth daemon interface → Bluetooth chip is strengthened, but not the shared RAM interface that enables the execution of Bluetooth chip code → WiFi. It is important to note that the daemon → chip interface was never designed to be safe against attack.

For example, the initial patch could be bypassed with a UART interface overflow (CVE-2021-22492) in the chip firmware until a recent patch, which was applied by Samsung at least in January 2021. Also, although writing to Bluetooth RAM via this interface has been disabled on iOS devices, iPhone 7 on iOS 14.3 still allows another command to execute arbitrary addresses in RAM.

For now, it is recommended to clear unnecessary pairing with Bluetooth devices, remove unused WiFi networks from settings and use cellular instead of WiFi in public places.

The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is all about big cameras, fast connections, and AI

There's no question that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 was a major step forward for smartphone performance, but it was far from a perfect chipset. Plenty of users and developers alike found the 888 running fast and hot, with OnePlus going so far as to throttle the chip in its flagship phones to improve battery life. With 2022 on the horizon, Qualcomm is looking to make Snapdragon the star of the show, with a new naming scheme and a clearer brand identity. Ultimately, all that matters is whether the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can push a new hardware lineup forward.

Let's start with the Kryo CPU. Qualcomm uses a prime 3.0GHz core based on the Cortex-X2, the successor to the Cortex-X1 found in last year's chip, promising a 20% boost in performance and up to 30% power saving gains. This inclusion shouldn't be surprising — it's based on the same main core used by MediaTek in the company's new Dimensity 9000. Three Cortex A710 cores at 2.5GHz and four Cortex A510 cores at 1.8GHz are also built into the CPU to help balance both performance and power efficiency, respectively. It also features 32-bit support for running older legacy apps without an issue. Finally, this year's chip is based on a 4nm process rather than a 5nm like its predecessor.

ANDROIDPOLICE VIDEO OF THE DAY

As for the GPU, Qualcomm is pushing its Snapdragon Elite Gaming features to the forefront, promising improved responsiveness, HDR scenes during gaming, and 'desktop-level capabilities.' Powering everything is a new Adreno GPU — like the processor itself, it goes without a specific name or number attached — promising a 30% boost in graphics rendering and a 25% improvement to power saving compared to last year's model. With the new Frame Motion Engine, FPS is effectively doubled without any increase in power consumption. Meanwhile, Qualcomm is expanding on its variable rate shading introduced in 2020 to help developers improve performance, with 'desktop-level volumetric rendering' creating better fog, smoke, and other particle effects. Support for Unreal Engine 5 is also included in this generation for advanced lighting and shadows in-game.

Some significant improvements are coming to AI as well. Qualcomm's 7th Gen AI Engine is up to four times faster than its predecessor, with a twice-as-fast tensor accelerometer and 100 percent larger shared memory. A third-gen Sensing Hub chip has an all-new architecture for operating a low-power AI system without relying on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's main CPU. Improved natural language processing from Hugging Face should improve notification grouping and prioritization. A collaboration with Sonde Health allows for on-device scans to detect a wide range of medical conditions, from asthma and depression to COVID-19 — all by listening to speech patterns in your voice.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Sight replaces its previous Spectra image processing, providing its first-ever 18-bit ISP. With these improvements, it's capable of capturing over 4,000 times more data from the camera than the previous 14-bit ISP, all while supporting 8K HDR video and low-light capture that stitches 30 images together to output a brighter image in dark situations. Unfortunately, there's still no AV1 codec support this year, even as adoption from platforms like YouTube and Netflix continues to pick up speed.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Qualcomm chip if it wasn't focused on 5G. The 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G modem includes broader support for more networks, frequencies, and bandwidths around the world without sacrificing speed or battery life. Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are included for speeds up to 3.6 Gbps, along with Bluetooth and LE audio. Snapdragon Sound — first announced back in September — promises to deliver CD-quality audio to your wireless headphones or earbuds with aptX Lossless technology.

With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm looks to mark a clean break from previous models, all while building on what's come before. This new chip probably won't revolutionize how you use your phone — especially if you're coming from a 888 device. But with better performance, lower power draw, and all sorts of optimizations to AI and camera performance, everything here sounds pretty enticing. The first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices are expected to ship by the end of 2021.

OnePlus limits which sensors Google Camera mods can access in OxygenOS 12

Just like Oppo does

sportsgaming.win

Dangerous bug in WiFi and Bluetooth chips discovered, potential data theft