BlackBerry Patches Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Affecting BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry Patches Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in qconnDoor Service

Joining Microsoft and Adobe in issuing security fixes on Tuesday, BlackBerry issued a patch to address a remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2014-1468) that affects BlackBerry 10 smartphones and could enable an attacker to take control of the device with root/superuser rights.

According to the Canadian smartphone maker, the vulnerability is not currently being exploited in the wild.

Successful remote exploitation requires an attacker to send a “specially crafted message” over a Wi-Fi network to the qconnDoor service on the smartphone, BlackBerry said.

According to the security advisory (BSRT-2014-003) from the BlackBerry Security Incident Response Team (BBSIRT), customer risk is limited by the inability of a potential attacker to force exploitation of the vulnerability without significant customer interaction or having physical access to the smartphone.

Additionally, in order to remotely attack the qconnDoor service on the smartphone, a user must enable development mode and be connected to a Wi-Fi network. Alternatively, an attacker could connect the smartphone to a computer using a USB cable before sending the exploit to the qconnDoor service, BlackBerry said, a scenario which requires the attacker to have physical control of the mobile device

“BlackBerry is committed to protecting customers from potential security risks, and while there are no known attacks targeting customers at this time, we recommend that all BlackBerry 10 smartphone customers apply the latest software update to be protected from this issue,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security.

The vulnerability has a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score of 7.9.