dbcve.org
AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2014-9780

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-07-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.0.1 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 · unedited
drivers/video/msm/mdss/mdp3_ctrl.c in the Qualcomm components in Android before 2016-07-05 on Nexus 5, 5X, and 6P devices does not validate start and length values, which allows attackers to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka Android internal bug 28602014 and Qualcomm internal bug CR542222.

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 confidence

The mdp3_ctrl.c driver in Qualcomm's MSM video components lacks validation on start and length parameters when handling memory operations. This allows a malicious Android application to perform out-of-bounds memory reads or writes, potentially achieving privilege escalation to root or kernel-level access on affected Nexus 5, 5X, and 6P devices.

MitigationApply the July 2016 Android security patch or later, which contains the corrected Qualcomm video driver with proper bounds checking. Users of affected Nexus devices should ensure they receive and install the monthly security update.

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
AndroidOperating system
Affected:<= 6.0.1

CVSS 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
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify device model
    Run 'getprop ro.product.model' or check device Settings > About Phone to confirm the exact model name
    Affected if Model is Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, or Nexus 6P (the only affected devices)
  2. Check Android version
    Run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android version
    Affected if Version is 6.0.1 or earlier (6.0 and below)
  3. Verify security patch level
    Run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' to see the installed security patch date
    Affected if Patch level is earlier than July 2016 (format typically shows YYYY-MM-DD)
  4. Confirm vulnerable driver presence
    Check if /dev/msm_mdp or similar video driver nodes exist and are accessible; run 'ls -la /dev/msm*' to enumerate MSM video devices
    Affected if The mdp3_ctrl.c driver component is loaded and accessible to applications

Device is affected if it is a Nexus 5, 5X, or 6P running Android 6.0.1 or earlier with a security patch level before July 2016.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 6.0.1
Interim mitigation

Apply the July 2016 Android security patch or later, which contains the corrected Qualcomm video driver with proper bounds checking. Users of affected Nexus devices should ensure they receive and install the monthly security update.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,220
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,152.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-9780 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-9780 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data