CVE-2026-25262 Write-What-Where in Qualcomm Sahara confirmed on Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (SM8450) – partial Firehose auth bypass
Description
CVE-2026-25262 is a write-what-where vulnerability in the Qualcomm Sahara protocol experimentally confirmed on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (SM8450) platform. It allows arbitrary writes to SRAM during the Sahara handshake, bypassing signature verification and partially bypassing Firehose loader authorization. Although the loader executes and responds to commands without authorization errors, full UFS storage access has not yet been achieved. The vulnerability was previously known only on legacy 32-bit Qualcomm platforms but is now shown to affect modern 64-bit ARMv9 SoCs. No official patch or remediation guidance is currently available, and further research is ongoing to achieve full Firehose initialization and understand TrustZone dependencies.
Reddit Discussion
I’d like to share the results of an experimental research note on the applicability of CVE-2026-25262 (Kaspersky ICS CERT, May 2026) to a modern 64-bit ARMv9 Qualcomm platform.
**Device:** POCO F4 GT (ingres) / Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (SM8450, Waipio).
**What was done:**
- Static analysis of the engineering Firehose loader (`xbl_s_devprg_ns.melf`) in Ghidra identified the authorization state structure at `0x6B9CD500` (critical field `0x6B9CD538`).
- A modified Sahara client (`cve_final_single`, based on B. Kerler's edl) was created to exploit the CVE and deliver the loader to an arbitrary SRAM address (`0x2211C000`) *without* signature verification.
- An additional `SAHARA_CMD_RECV_DATA` packet injected the value `5` into the `is_authenticated` field before control was transferred to Firehose.
**Result (partial success):**
- Arbitrary write to SRAM via CVE-2026-25262 is **confirmed working** on SM8450.
- The loader executes and responds to commands (`nop` succeeds), no authorization error is observed.
- Full UFS access is **not yet achieved**; `getstorageinfo` and `read` return empty responses. Two hypotheses are being investigated: (1) loading only the LOAD segments without ELF/certificate overlay, and (2) potential TrustZone/SMC dependencies.
**Why this might be interesting:**
The official Qualcomm list for CVE-2026-25262 includes only 32-bit legacy platforms. This experiment suggests that the vulnerable code path in the Boot ROM is also present on the latest flagship SoCs, widening the scope of the vulnerability.
Full article, logs, PBL status codes, and static analysis notes are available in the repository:
https://github.com/shurikgo/cve-2026-25262-sm8450-research
No full exploit code is provided; the published material is sufficient for independent verification and further research.
*This work is shared for educational and research purposes only.*
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AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-25262 is a write-what-where vulnerability in the Qualcomm Sahara protocol confirmed experimentally on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (SM8450) platform, specifically on the POCO F4 GT device. The vulnerability enables arbitrary writes to SRAM during the Sahara handshake, bypassing signature verification and partially bypassing Firehose loader authorization by injecting a value into the authentication state structure. The Firehose loader executes and responds to commands without authorization errors, but full UFS storage access has not been achieved, possibly due to incomplete initialization or TrustZone/SMC dependencies. This research extends the known affected platforms from legacy 32-bit Qualcomm chipsets to modern 64-bit ARMv9 SoCs. No official patch or remediation is currently available, and investigation continues.
Potential Impact
The vulnerability allows an attacker to perform arbitrary writes to SRAM during the Sahara handshake, bypassing signature verification and partially bypassing Firehose loader authorization on Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices. This could enable unauthorized code execution in the loader context. However, full access to UFS storage has not yet been demonstrated, limiting the current impact. The vulnerability broadens the scope of affected Qualcomm platforms to include modern 64-bit ARMv9 SoCs, potentially increasing the attack surface on flagship devices.
Mitigation Recommendations
No official patch or remediation guidance is currently available for CVE-2026-25262 on Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platforms. Users and administrators should monitor Qualcomm advisories for updates. Since the vulnerability involves low-level bootloader code and TrustZone dependencies, mitigation may require vendor-issued firmware updates. Until then, no direct mitigation actions are confirmed.
Technical Details
- Source Type
- Subreddit
- cybersecurity
- Reddit Score
- 0
- Discussion Level
- minimal
- Content Source
- reddit_link_post
- Post Type
- link
- Newsworthiness Assessment
- {"score":53,"reasons":["external_link","newsworthy_keywords:cve-","security_identifier","established_author","recent_news"],"isNewsworthy":true,"foundNewsworthy":["cve-"]}
- Has External Source
- true
- Trusted Domain
- false
Threat ID: 6a4ef5a6c9d9e3dbe32a977a
Added to database: 07/09/2026, 01:13:10 UTC
Last enriched: 09/23/2026, 02:00:49 UTC
Last updated: 10/06/2026, 18:48:20 UTC
Views: 968
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