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AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2015-6637

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-01-06
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
The MediaTek misc-sd driver in Android before 5.1.1 LMY49F and 6.0 before 2016-01-01 allows attackers to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka internal bug 25307013.

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 · moderate confidence

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the MediaTek misc-sd driver in Android versions before 5.1.1 LMY49F and before the 2016-01-01 patch for Android 6.0. The flaw allows a locally-installed crafted application to execute code with elevated privileges by exploiting the misc-sd driver, likely through improper input validation or insufficient access controls within the kernel driver.

MitigationApply the January 2016 Android security patch level or later; for affected devices no longer receiving OTA updates, consider network segmentation, EMM policies restricting app installation, or device replacement.

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:= 4.4.4= 5.0= 5.1.1= 6.0= 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. Check the Android OS version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run command: getprop ro.build.version.release
    Affected if The version listed is 4.4.4, 5.0, 5.1.1, 6.0, or 6.0.1
  2. Check the security patch level
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Build number, or run command: getprop ro.build.version.security_patch
    Affected if The patch level is blank, missing, or shows a date before January 1, 2016 (such as 2015-12-01 or 2015-11-05)
  3. Identify the chipset hardware
    Run command: getprop ro.hardware, or view /proc/cpuinfo and look for MediaTek or MTK in the hardware information
    Affected if The device uses a MediaTek chipset (commonly identified as mt6580, mt6735, mt6753, etc.)
  4. Verify the misc-sd driver presence
    Check if the misc-sd device node exists by running: ls -la /dev/misc-sd or ls -la /dev/block/misc-sd, or check kernel modules with: lsmod | grep misc_sd
    Affected if The misc-sd device node or kernel module is present on the device

A device is affected if it runs Android 4.4.4, 5.0, 5.1.1, 6.0, or 6.0.1 with a pre-January-2016 patch level, uses a MediaTek chipset, and has the misc-sd driver present.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the January 2016 Android security patch level or later; for affected devices no longer receiving OTA updates, consider network segmentation, EMM policies restricting app installation, or device replacement.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
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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-2015-6637 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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