A high-severity vulnerability has been identified in the Airoha Bluetooth audio Software Development Kit (SDK), which is used in a wide range of audio products. This flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-20700, allows a nearby attacker to bypass security permissions over a Bluetooth connection and access sensitive data. Successful exploitation could lead to a breach of confidential information stored on or transmitted by affected devices.

The vulnerability is a permission bypass within the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) service implementation in Airoha's audio SDK. An unauthenticated attacker within Bluetooth range can send specially crafted requests to the GATT service of a vulnerable device. This bypasses the intended access controls, granting the attacker unauthorized read access to critical data managed by the proprietary RACE protocol, which should otherwise be protected.

This vulnerability presents a High severity risk, reflected by its CVSS score of 8.8. Exploitation could lead to the compromise of critical data, potentially including user information, device configuration details, or proprietary operational data. For an organization, this translates to a direct risk of data breaches, loss of customer trust, and potential non-compliance with data protection regulations. The widespread use of Airoha's SDK in consumer and enterprise audio devices means the potential attack surface could be extensive, impacting products from various manufacturers.

Immediate Action: Apply the security updates provided by Airoha or the specific product manufacturer immediately. Organizations must inventory all devices utilizing Airoha chipsets and prioritize the deployment of firmware patches to mitigate this vulnerability.

Proactive Monitoring: IT and security teams should monitor for anomalous Bluetooth activity. This includes observing logs for unusual or repeated GATT connection attempts, unexpected data access patterns, and connections from unauthorized or unrecognized devices within physical proximity to sensitive assets.

Compensating Controls: If immediate patching is not feasible, consider disabling Bluetooth functionality on non-essential devices. Implement physical security controls to limit an attacker's ability to get within Bluetooth range of critical systems. Enforce strict device pairing policies and educate users on the risks of connecting to unknown Bluetooth devices.

Public Exploit Available: False

Given the high severity (CVSS 8.8) of this vulnerability, we strongly recommend that organizations take immediate action. The primary course of action is to identify all products in your environment that use the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK and deploy the vendor-provided security patches without delay. Although there is no evidence of active exploitation, the risk of a data breach is significant, and proactive patching is the most effective defense to prevent potential compromise.