# CVE-2015-9161: Race condition in Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wear

> A time-of-check time-of-use race condition in Qualcomm Snapdragon firmware allows attackers to trigger a buffer overflow and potentially execute arbitrary code.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Apr 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j3jh-c6q7-v96f

## What is CVE-2015-9161?

CVE-2015-9161 is a critical vulnerability in Qualcomm Msm8909w Firmware, published on 18 Apr 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Android before 2018-04-05 or earlier security patch level on Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile and Snapdragon Wear MSM8909W, SD 210/SD 212/SD 205, SD 400, SD 410/12, SD 615/16/SD 415, SD 617, SD 650/52, SD 800, SD 808, and SD 810, TOCTOU condition could lead to a buffer overflow in function playready_reader_bind().

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-9161?

It affects 21 products.


Products: Qualcomm Msm8909w Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 205 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 210 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 212 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 400 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 410 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 412 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 415 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 615 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 616 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 617 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 650 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 652 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 800 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 808 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 810 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 820 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 835 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 845 Firmware, Qualcomm Sd 850 Firmware and 1 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-9161?

No fix has been published for CVE-2015-9161 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2015-9161 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-9161 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Qualcomm Msm8909w Firmware

- [CVE-2019-2285](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-2285/): Memory corruption in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-10509](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10509/): Use after free in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-10538](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10538/): Memory corruption in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-2255](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-2255/): Code injection in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-2259](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-2259/): Denial of service in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-9161 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-9161 is a critical vulnerability in Qualcomm Msm8909w Firmware, published on 18 Apr 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-9161 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Qualcomm Msm8909w Firmware. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-9161/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-9161/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-9161
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-9161
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-9161

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-9161/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.