CVE-2014-9785
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 · unediteddrivers/misc/qseecom.c in the Qualcomm components in Android before 2016-07-05 on Nexus 7 (2013) devices does not validate addresses before copying data, which allows attackers to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka Android internal bug 28469042 and Qualcomm internal bug CR545747.
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 confidenceMissing address validation in the qseecom.c kernel driver allows a local attacker to copy data to/from arbitrary kernel memory addresses. The driver fails to verify that user-space pointers are valid before passing them to memory copy functions, enabling a crafted application to achieve privilege escalation by manipulating pointer values.
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<= 6.0.1CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the operating systemCheck if the system is running Android by examining /system/build.prop or running 'getprop ro.build.id'Affected if The system is not Android - this vulnerability only affects Android devices
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Determine the Android versionRun 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or read 'ro.build.version.release' from /system/build.propAffected if Android version is 6.0.1 or lower (versions 4.x through 6.0.1 are affected)
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Verify qseecom driver presenceCheck for the qseecom kernel module by running 'ls /system/lib/modules/' or 'cat /proc/modules | grep qseecom'Affected if The qseecom module is loaded or present on the device - without this driver, the vulnerability does not apply
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Confirm device uses Qualcomm chipsetCheck /proc/cpuinfo for 'Qualcomm' or examine /sys/class/socinfo/ for Qualcomm identifiers, or check 'getprop ro.hardware'Affected if The device uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor - the qseecom driver is specific to Qualcomm hardware
The environment is affected if it runs Android version 6.0.1 or lower on a Qualcomm-based device with the qseecom kernel driver loaded.
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 the Android security patch from July 2016 or later, which includes proper address validation in the qseecom driver. For embedded systems, ensure kernel driver code validates all user-space pointers before memory copy operations.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-9785 — 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-2014-9785 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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- 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
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