CVE-2018-7940

Vulnerability

The vulnerability exists in Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro smart phones running versions earlier than 8.0.0.129(SP2C00) (for Mate 10) and earlier than 8.0.0.129(SP2C01) (for Mate 10 Pro) [1]. It is an authentication bypass flaw that allows an attacker to bypass the device activation function [1]. The attack requires the attacker to have high privilege access to the smart phone physically [1].

Exploitation

An attacker with high privilege (e.g., root access or physical control of the device) can perform specific operations to bypass the activation function [1]. The advisory does not detail the exact sequence of operations required, but the attacker must have physical possession of the phone and elevated privileges to execute the bypass [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation allows the attacker to bypass the phone's activation function [1]. This could potentially enable the attacker to use the device without proper authentication, circumventing security checks such as factory reset protection or device registration [1]. The impact is limited to bypassing activation and does not necessarily grant full device access beyond that [1].

Mitigation

Huawei has released software updates to fix the vulnerability. The resolved versions are ALP-AL00B 8.0.0.129(SP2C00) for HUAWEI Mate 10 and BLA-TL00B 8.0.0.129(SP2C01) for HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro [1]. Users should upgrade to these or later versions. The vulnerability is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog as of the publication date.