Description

In Power HAL, there is a possible escalation of privilege due to type confusion. This could lead to local escalation of privilege if a malicious actor has already obtained the System privilege. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS11165543; Issue ID: MSV-9012.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "6.7",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-07T02:17:19.470Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-07T02:17:19.470Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A vulnerability classified as a type confusion flaw has been identified within the Power HAL component. This security defect facilitates a local privilege escalation (LPE) condition, allowing an attacker who has already compromised a System-level process to further escalate or abuse system permissions.\nThe vulnerability originates from improper handling of data types during object processing within the Hardware Abstraction Layer. Because the flaw exists within a core system service, it poses a significant risk to the integrity of the operating system's permission model.\nSuccessful exploitation does not require user interaction, making it a latent threat that can be triggered programmatically by an adversary already possessing elevated privileges. Given the nature of HAL components, this vulnerability resides in a highly privileged context, potentially allowing an attacker to bypass existing security boundaries. The impact is primarily restricted to local post-exploitation scenarios, where the attacker leverages the vulnerability to achieve further system compromise after gaining an initial foothold as a System user.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability identified as MSV-9012 (Patch ID: ALPS11165543) is rooted in a type confusion bug within the Power HAL. Type confusion occurs when the software allocates or initializes a resource using one type, but subsequently accesses it using an incompatible type. In the context of this Power HAL implementation, the disparity in type interpretation leads to memory corruption or incorrect pointer dereferencing during inter-process communication (IPC) or internal data object management.\nThe root cause involves the Power HAL failing to adequately validate the type of incoming data structures or objects processed during HAL service calls. When a malicious or specifically crafted object is passed to the Power HAL, the internal state machine misinterprets the memory layout, treating fields as members of a different object type. This violation of the memory safety model allows an attacker to control flow redirection or read/write arbitrary memory locations by manipulating the confused object's fields.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, an attacker must obtain execution capabilities under the System privilege level. Once this prerequisite is met, the attacker identifies the interface exposed by the Power HAL that is susceptible to the type confusion. The attacker then constructs a payload—typically a serialized object or a buffer that triggers the flaw—and submits it to the Power HAL via the appropriate binder or hardware interface. Upon receiving the malformed object, the Power HAL logic attempts to cast or interpret the input data based on an incorrect type definition. This leads to an out-of-bounds access or a use-after-free condition depending on the specific memory management pattern of the object. Exploitation allows the attacker to corrupt the execution environment, potentially overwriting function pointers or object references that dictate the control flow of the HAL service.\nBecause the Power HAL operates with elevated system permissions, the successful execution of this exploit results in a privilege escalation within the system context. The lack of requirement for user interaction suggests that the attack can be automated via malicious scripts or background services. The post-exploitation impact includes the potential for bypassing system-level security constraints, further compromising hardware-software communication, or facilitating persistence at the highest privilege levels within the device's user-space execution environment."
}