CVE-2013-4738
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMultiple stack-based buffer overflows in the MSM camera driver for the Linux kernel 3.x, as used in Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC) Android contributions for MSM devices and other products, allow attackers to gain privileges via (1) a crafted VIDIOC_MSM_VPE_DEQUEUE_STREAM_BUFF_INFO ioctl call, related to drivers/media/platform/msm/camera_v2/pproc/vpe/msm_vpe.c, or (2) a crafted VIDIOC_MSM_CPP_DEQUEUE_STREAM_BUFF_INFO ioctl call, related to drivers/media/platform/msm/camera_v2/pproc/cpp/msm_cpp.c.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceStack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the MSM camera driver for Linux kernel 3.x. The VIDIOC_MSM_VPE_DEQUEUE_STREAM_BUFF_INFO and VIDIOC_MSM_CPP_DEQUEUE_STREAM_BUFF_INFO ioctl handlers in msm_vpe.c and msm_cpp.c fail to properly validate input sizes when dequeuing stream buffers, allowing overflow onto the kernel stack and privilege escalation.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 2.6.29= 3.4CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify kernel versionRun 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version' to determine the running Linux kernel versionAffected if Kernel version is 3.x or 2.6.29 (Codeaurora)
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Check if MSM camera driver is loadedRun 'lsmod | grep -E "(msm_vpe|msm_cpp|msm_camera)"' to list loaded camera driver modulesAffected if Any msm_vpe, msm_cpp, or msm_camera modules are loaded in memory
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Verify camera device nodes existRun 'ls -la /dev/video* /dev/msm_* 2>/dev/null' to enumerate camera-related device nodesAffected if Device nodes such as /dev/video0 or /dev/msm_* exist and are accessible
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Confirm V4L2 video subsystem is in useRun 'v4l2-ctl --list-devices 2>/dev/null' or check /sys/class/video4linux/ for available video devicesAffected if Video devices associated with MSM camera are listed
The environment is affected if running a vulnerable kernel version (3.x) with the MSM camera driver modules loaded and accessible camera device nodes present.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor kernel patches for CVE-2013-4738; if unavailable, disable the MSM camera driver or restrict access to camera device nodes to untrusted users.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-4738 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-4738 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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