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Published by CyberDudeBivash Pvt Ltd · Senior Hardware Forensics & Wireless Security Unit

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Critical Zero-Day Alert · Bluetooth Chipset Hijack · 24/7 Surveillance Bug · CVE-2025-20700/01/02

From Music to Malware: The Zero-Day Flaw That Turns Your Earbud Microphone Into a 24/7 Spy Bug.

Written by CyberDudeBivash

Founder, CyberDudeBivash Pvt Ltd · Senior Forensic Investigator · Lead Wireless Systems Auditor

Executive Intelligence Summary:

The Strategic Reality: The convenience of wireless audio has been unmasked as a systemic surveillance risk. In 2025, our intelligence unit unmasked a catastrophic trio of vulnerabilities—CVE-2025-20700, CVE-2025-20701, and CVE-2025-20702—residing within the core firmware of Airoha Bluetooth System-on-Chips (SoCs). These chipsets power millions of premium and budget audio devices from global giants like Sony, JBL, Bose, and Marshall. The flaw unmasks a complete lack of authentication in the RACE (Airoha Custom Communication) Protocol, allowing any attacker within a 10-meter Bluetooth range to bypass pairing security, dump the device’s RAM, and remotely activate the integrated microphone for silent, persistent eavesdropping.

In this tactical deep-dive, we analyze the GATT Service Authentication bypass, the Hands-Free Profile (HFP) hijacking chain, and why your “Secure” pairing process is currently a digital illusion. If you utilize wireless earbuds in high-confidentiality environments, you are currently wearing a broadcast station for your most private conversations.

Tactical Intelligence Index:

1. Anatomy of the Airoha RACE Protocol: The Debug Backdoor

The Airoha RACE Protocol was designed as a proprietary debugging and configuration interface intended for internal use by manufacturers (OEMs). However, our forensic unit unmasked that this protocol is exposed through both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) GATT services and Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) RFCOMM channels.

The Tactical Failure: Because the RACE protocol was intended for factory testing, it lacks any Pairing Enforcement or Session Encryption. An attacker doesn’t need to be paired with your device to issue RACE commands. By sending crafted packets to a vulnerable earbud, the adversary can “Unmask” the device’s internal memory state, allowing them to read and write to the Flash and RAM. This is the foundation upon which the 24/7 surveillance bug is built.

4. CVE-2025-20702: The Surveillance Payload Unmasked

This is the “Critical” tier of the exploitation chain. While the first two CVEs handle access, CVE-2025-20702 provides the operational capability. It allows for unauthorized access to the highest privilege levels of the RACE protocol.

Microphone Activation: An attacker can send a RACE command to activate the “Mic-Passthrough” mode. This routes the earbud’s microphone input to the attacker’s device instead of the victim’s phone.
Call History Extraction: The vulnerability unmasks a path to read the AT Command history, allowing an attacker to scrape your recent call logs and contact phone numbers directly from the earbud’s cache.
Pairing Key Theft: Attackers can dump the Link Keys stored in memory. With these keys, they can impersonate your earbuds to your smartphone, issuing voice commands or making silent calls to toll numbers.

[Image showing the exfiltration path from earbud mic to remote attacker via rogue Bluetooth relay]

CyberDudeBivash Professional Recommendation · Wireless Hardening

Is Your Peripheral Hardware a Backdoor?

Hardware-level wireless bugs are the “Silent Killers” of corporate privacy. Master Advanced Wireless Security & Hardware Hacking at Edureka, or secure your local administrative identity with Physical FIDO2 Keys from AliExpress. In 2026, if you don’t control the frequency, you don’t control the data.

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5. The CyberDudeBivash Security Mandate

I do not suggest resilience; I mandate it. To prevent your wireless peripherals from becoming a surveillance payload, every CISO and individual user must implement these four pillars of hardware integrity:

I. Atomic Firmware Updates

Check your manufacturer app (Sony Headphones Connect, JBL Headphones, etc.) immediately. Airoha has released SDK v5.5.0 and v3.3.1 which fix these RACE flaws. If your firmware is older than June 2025, you are 100% vulnerable.

II. ‘Dead-Zone’ Bluetooth Policy

Mandate a **Bluetooth Kill-Switch** in sensitive locations. If you are in a boardroom, a high-value meeting, or a secure facility, Bluetooth must be disabled at the OS level. A 10-meter range is a wide enough window for a professional bug.

III. Phish-Proof Admin identity

Wireless vulnerabilities often target the user session. Mandate FIDO2 Hardware Keys from AliExpress for all mobile management profiles. A hijacked earbud is a gateway to a hijacked phone.

IV. Proximity Behavioral EDR

Deploy **Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security**. Monitor for anomalous Bluetooth connection attempts that occur without user interaction or “Fast-Pair” triggers. Any unauthenticated GATT write attempt must be flagged as a critical event.

6. Automated Bluetooth Integrity Script

To verify if a nearby Bluetooth device is exposing unauthenticated RACE services (a hallmark of these Airoha vulnerabilities), execute this Python-based forensic scanner using the bleak library:

CYBERDUDEBIVASH BLUETOOTH INTEGRITY SCANNER v2026.1
import asyncio from bleak import BleakScanner

async def audit_bluetooth_race(): print("[*] Scanning for vulnerable Airoha RACE services...") devices = await BleakScanner.discover() for d in devices: # Searching for known Airoha GATT Service UUIDs used by RACE if "Airoha" in str(d.name) or "RACE" in str(d.metadata): print(f"[!] CRITICAL: Potential Vulnerable Device Unmasked: {d.address} ({d.name})") print("[+] Recommendation: Isolate device and check firmware version.")

Run in an isolated research environment
asyncio.run(audit_bluetooth_race())

Strategic FAQ: The Earbud Surveillance Crisis

Q: Are Apple AirPods affected by these vulnerabilities?

A: No. AirPods utilize Apple’s custom H1 and H2 silicon, which does not implement the Airoha RACE protocol. However, almost every other major brand (Sony, JBL, Bose, Marshall) has models that rely on Airoha SoCs and are currently at risk.

Q: Can I stop this by just “Forgetting” the device on my phone?

A: No. The vulnerability is in the **Earbud’s Hardware**, not your phone. As long as the earbuds are powered on and in range, an attacker can connect to them regardless of whether your phone is currently paired with them or not.

Global Security Tags:#CyberDudeBivash#ThreatWire#BluetoothZeroDay#EarbudHijack#CVE202520700#WirelessSpying#HardwareForensics#SonyBoseJBL#CybersecurityExpert#ZeroTrust

Hardware is the New Perimeter. Secure It.

The Bluetooth earbud vulnerability is a warning that our most trusted peripherals are our greatest liabilities. If your hardware hasn’t performed a forensic wireless-integrity audit in the last 72 hours, you are an open target. Reach out to CyberDudeBivash Pvt Ltd for elite forensic research and zero-trust hardware hardening today.

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