Software Engineering Institute

Overview

Skullcandy Dime 3 wireless earbuds, running firmware version 1.0.0.28, accept a new Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) pairing request from an unpaired device without requiring the earbuds to be placed into pairing mode or requiring any physical confirmation or interaction from the owner.

Description

The Skullcandy Dime 3 (Model S2DCW) wireless earbuds, running firmware version 1.0.0.28, accept a new Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) pairing request from a previously unpaired device without the device being placed into pairing mode by the owner and without physical confirmation on the earbuds. The device's Bluetooth PnP modalias identifies the chipset vendor as Airoha Technology Corp. (Bluetooth SIG company ID 0x0094). This vulnerability was previously disclosed in CVE-2025-20701 and is described as: In the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK, there is a possible way to pair Bluetooth audio device without user consent. This could lead to remote escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.

An attacker is required to be within Bluetooth radio range to the target earbuds, but no prior pairing, physical access, or interaction with the earbuds' buttons or case is required to exploit the vulnerability. A direct pairing request to the earbuds' known or discovered Bluetooth Classic address can be sent without a PIN, passkey, or physical confirmation. The pairing/bonding completes without owner action due to the device's NoInputNoOutput I/O capability. The firmware version displayed on the affected Skullcandy Dime 3 wireless earbuds is 1.0.0.28.

Impact

Once bonded, the attacker's device is added as a trusted device and can reconnect automatically whenever in range. This allows an attacker to establish an A2DP audio transport, which interrupts the legitimate user's active connection to their own device. The only indication to the legitimate user is an audible "New device paired" notification, given after the unauthorized pairing has already succeeded, providing no opportunity to block it in advance. This could allow an attacker to hijack the audio session or, depending on device capabilities, potentially access other services exposed over the same Bluetooth Classic connection. An attacker can also access the Dime 3's Hands-Free/Headset profile and capture live microphone audio.

Solution

The vendor considers the CVE-2025-20701 patch in version 1.0.0.30 to be effective. However, Skullcandy confirmed that the Dime 3 does not support firmware updates through the Skullcandy application. Existing units running the vulnerable firmware cannot currently be updated by customers through the app. As of this writing, there are no known consumer-accessible methods to update an existing unit from the affected firmware version 1.0.0.28 to version 1.0.0.30.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Jacob Nowak for reporting this vulnerability. This document was written by Bob Kemerer.

Vendor Information

References

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20701