Check Point Research discover vulnerabilities in smartphones chips embedded in 37% of smartphones around the world
Highlights · Check Point Research discovered vulnerabilities in MediaTek’s chips, embedded in 37% of all smartphones globally · CPR discovered several vulnerabilities in the audio processor that are accessible from the Android user space · If exploited, attacker can potentially eavesdrop on the user from an unprivileged Android app Introduction Taiwan’s MediaTek has been the global smartphone chip leader since Q3 2020. MediaTek Systems on a chip (SoCs) are embedded in approximately 37% of all smartphones and IoT devices in the world, including high-end phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Vivo and more. Modern MediaTek SoCs, including the latest Dimensity series, contain a special AI processing unit (APU) and audio Digital signal processor (DSP) to improve media performance and reduce CPU usage. Both the APU and the audio DSP have custom Tensilica Xtensa microprocessor architecture. The Tensilica processor platform allows chip manufacturers to extend the ba