The chip shortage crisis arose due to lesser supply and more demand. Unisoc, the Chinese chipmakers, capitalize upon the opportunities amid the global shortage. As MediaTek, the Taiwanese group, has managed to rise with more exclusive products, Unisoc replaced the former by providing budget-friendly phones.
However, we can expect firm scrutiny as one of the company’s previously manufactured chips was labeled a threat vector which placed the budget phone owners at risk.
There was a possibility of a patch to some extent. Nowadays, we witness a vulnerability that openly affects a Unisoc chip inside three Motorola devices.
The Critical risk for Motorola owners
The Checkpoint Research analyst unveiled a vulnerability in Tiger T700 chips that features Moto G20, E30, and E40 devices launched last year. The devices distributed across Europe had a flaw when the device’s cellular modem attempted to establish an LTE network connection.
The major fault is the error of a check to ensure that the connection handler of the modem reads a valid IMSI or a subscriber ID.
When the handler fails to read a zero digital field, it causes a stack of overflow. It causes a denial of service attack (or a remote execution code, if it can be misused), thus blocking the user from the LTE network.
Although, it’s still ambiguous whether a similar baseband modem with similar firmware is present on the other Unisoc AP chips.
Checkpoint informed Unisoc about the concern and evaluated the risk at a 9.4 rating out of 10. The company patched the problem promptly and aimed to resolve the issue instantly.
Google will roll out the patch for the users after the Android security bulletin of this month is completed. From this point, Motorola will be responsible for delivering it to the users.
A gentle reminder
Chip-level vulnerability is a rather common sight, and the severity can vary often. Thus, such defects pass up on the repair chain quite often.
It is a gentle reminder that you don’t have to go over the edge trying to avoid a smartphone with a Unisoc chip. The company is trying its best to fix all the issues and mistakes, and the company will resolve the gaps efficiently.
