Introduction - Engaging opening that highlights real impact and significance
Unexpected loss of cellular connectivity on flagship smartphones and wearables can disrupt critical communications, especially for enterprise users and first responders. A recently disclosed vulnerability in Samsung's Exynos baseband firmware exposes a denial of service risk across a wide range of modern devices, including those using the latest Exynos 2400 and W1000 chipsets.
About Samsung Exynos: Samsung Electronics is a major global semiconductor manufacturer. Its Exynos line powers not only Samsung Galaxy smartphones and wearables but also devices from other manufacturers, making its security posture highly relevant to millions of users and the broader mobile ecosystem.
Technical Information
CVE-2024-55568 is caused by the absence of a NULL pointer check in the UL2 component of Samsung Exynos baseband firmware. The vulnerability is triggered during the processing of Mobility Management (MM) protocol packets. Specifically, when a malformed MM packet is received, the firmware attempts to dereference a pointer that has not been validated for NULL. This results in a crash or hang of the baseband processor, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The device may lose all cellular connectivity or require a reboot to restore normal operation.
The flaw is classified under CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) and CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference). The attack vector involves sending specially crafted MM packets to the device, which can be achieved by operating a rogue base station or compromising network infrastructure. No public code snippets or proof of concept are available for this vulnerability.
Affected Systems and Versions (MUST BE SPECIFIC)
The following Samsung Exynos products and versions are affected:
- Exynos 980
- Exynos 990
- Exynos 850
- Exynos 1080
- Exynos 2100
- Exynos 1280
- Exynos 2200
- Exynos 1330
- Exynos 1380
- Exynos 1480
- Exynos 2400
- Exynos 9110
- Exynos W920
- Exynos W930
- Exynos W1000
- Exynos Modem 5123
- Exynos Modem 5300
- Exynos Modem 5400
The vulnerability affects all firmware versions for these products prior to the release of Samsung's official patch. No specific version ranges are provided in public advisories.
Vendor Security History
Samsung has a documented history of baseband and Exynos vulnerabilities. In March 2023, Google Project Zero disclosed critical remote code execution flaws in Exynos modems (CVE-2023-24033 and others), which were actively targeted by advanced threat actors. Samsung maintains a monthly security update program and coordinates with external researchers for vulnerability disclosure. Patch response times vary by product and region, and some older devices may not receive timely updates.