Physical BootRom corruption via unchecked recovery payload
Published Sep 1, 2025 · Updated Sep 1, 2025
Buffer overflow in Unisoc SC9863A and twelve other SoCs allows physically proximate attackers to corrupt BootRom memory via recovery mode. The receive_payload_usb and receive_payload_uart functions unmask host data byte by byte into a fixed-size global buffer without checking its length. Recovery mode requires brief physical access and a held boot key; the overflow corrupts BootRom memory but does not trivially overwrite a return pointer.
Summary
What happened
Buffer overflow in Unisoc SC9863A and twelve other SoCs allows physically proximate attackers to corrupt BootRom memory via recovery mode. The receive_payload_usb and receive_payload_uart functions unmask host data byte by byte into a fixed-size global buffer without checking its length. Recovery mode requires brief physical access and a held boot key; the overflow corrupts BootRom memory but does not trivially overwrite a return pointer.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-38696
- Published
- Sep 1, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 1, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-119, T1542
- Attack vector
- physical
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 1, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 1, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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What is affected?
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
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Your stack
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