CVE-2018-3592

Vulnerability

In Android before security patch level 2018-04-05 on Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile and Snapdragon Wear chipsets, a missing NULL pointer check was identified. The affected chipsets include MDM9206, MDM9607, MDM9635M, MDM9640, MDM9645, MDM9650, MDM9655, MSM8909W, SD 210/SD 212/SD 205, SD 425, SD 430, SD 450, SD 625, SD 650/52, SD 820, SD 835, SD 845, SD 850. The vulnerability exists in a kernel-level driver or component where a pointer is used without verifying it is not NULL before writing to the memory location. This allows a potential use-after-free or null pointer dereference scenario.

Exploitation

An attacker with local access to the device and ability to execute code at a lower privilege level could trigger the vulnerability. The exact steps require sending a specially crafted input to the vulnerable driver, leading to the pointer being set to NULL or an invalid memory region. No user interaction is needed beyond exploiting the device.

Impact

Successful exploitation could cause memory corruption, denial of service, or elevation of privilege to the kernel level. The attacker may overwrite sensitive memory regions, potentially gaining arbitrary code execution with system privileges.

Mitigation

The fix is included in the Android security patch level 2018-04-05 [1]. Users should ensure their devices receive the April 2018 or later security update. There is no known workaround besides applying the patch.