Overview
CVE-2025-20753 is a newly discovered vulnerability affecting MediaTek modems. This vulnerability could allow a remote attacker to cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability stems from an uncaught exception within the modem’s firmware.
Technical Details
The root cause of CVE-2025-20753 lies in the modem’s handling of specific network packets. An attacker controlling a rogue base station can exploit this by sending specially crafted packets to a vulnerable device. The modem’s firmware fails to properly handle an exception triggered by these packets, resulting in a system crash. The vulnerability is identified by Issue ID MSV-4841 and is addressed in patch ID MOLY01689252.
The exploitation requires no user interaction and does not need any execution privileges on the target device. This significantly increases the attack surface as a user only needs to connect to a malicious base station.
CVSS Analysis
The CVSS score for CVE-2025-20753 is currently listed as N/A. However, given the remote, unauthenticated, and no-user-interaction nature of the vulnerability, coupled with its ability to cause a denial of service, it is likely to receive a high CVSS score upon completion of the analysis by relevant authorities. We will update this section as soon as the CVSS score is available.
Possible Impact
The successful exploitation of CVE-2025-20753 can have severe consequences:
- Denial of Service: The primary impact is a denial of service, rendering the affected device unusable.
- Disruption of Communication: Devices used for critical communication, such as emergency services or IoT devices in industrial control systems, could be significantly impacted.
- Potential for Chained Attacks: While this vulnerability directly causes a DoS, it could potentially be chained with other vulnerabilities to achieve more significant impacts.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The primary mitigation for CVE-2025-20753 is to apply the security patch provided by MediaTek.
- Identify Affected Devices: Determine which devices in your environment utilize MediaTek modems and are potentially vulnerable.
- Apply Patch MOLY01689252: Contact the device manufacturer or your service provider to obtain and apply patch MOLY01689252.
- Network Monitoring: Implement network monitoring solutions to detect suspicious network activity that may indicate an attempted exploit.
- Rogue Base Station Detection: Utilize tools and techniques to detect and avoid connecting to rogue or untrusted cellular base stations.
