Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek has addressed four vulnerabilities that could have allowed malicious apps to eavesdrop on Android phone users.
Three the of vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2021-0661, CVE-2021-0662 and CVE-2021-0663, affected MediaTek’s audio digital signal processor (DSP) firmware. It’s a sensitive component that if compromised could allow attackers to spy on user conversations.
Researchers at Check Point found and reported the flaws to MediaTek, which disclosed and fixed them in October. A fourth issue affects the MediaTek HAL (CVE-2021-0673). It was also fixed in October but will be disclosed in December.
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“A malformed inter-processor message could potentially be used by an attacker to execute and hide malicious code inside the DSP firmware. Since the DSP firmware has access to the audio data flow, an attack on the DSP could potentially be used to eavesdrop on the user,” explains Check Point researcher Slava Makkaveev.
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According to market research firm Counterpoint, MediaTek’s system on chips
