CVE-2019-2068

Vulnerability

A missing bounds check in the libxaac library on Android 10 leads to an out-of-bounds write. This vulnerability resides in the AAC audio decoder component and can be triggered when processing a specially crafted audio file. The issue affects Android 10 devices with a security patch level prior to 2019-09-01 [1].

Exploitation

An attacker requires no authentication or special privileges but must convince a user to open a malicious audio file (e.g., via a web page, email, or messaging app). The crafted file causes libxaac to write beyond allocated memory, corrupting adjacent data structures.

Impact

Successful exploitation results in remote code execution within the context of the affected process (likely mediaserver). The attacker gains the ability to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of that process, potentially leading to full device compromise.

Mitigation

The vulnerability is fixed in Android 10 as released, which includes the 2019-09-01 security patch level [1]. Devices with this patch level or later are protected. No workarounds are available for unpatched devices. There are no reports of active exploitation in the wild [1].