AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2015-9051

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-08-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
In all Qualcomm products with Android releases from CAF using the Linux kernel, a vulnerability exists in LTE where an assertion can be reached due to an improper bound on a length in a System Information message.

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 vulnerability in Qualcomm LTE baseband firmware allows an attacker to trigger an assertion failure by sending a specially crafted System Information message with an improperly bounded length field. This can cause a denial of service on affected Android devices using Qualcomm chipsets with Linux kernel-based CAF releases.

MitigationApply vendor-provided firmware patches from Qualcomm and/or your mobile carrier. Ensure devices receive and install regular security updates, particularly baseband/LTE firmware updates.

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:all versions

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 Qualcomm chipset usage
    Run 'getprop ro.product.board' or check /proc/cpuinfo for 'Qualcomm' identifier, or use 'getprop gsm.version.baseband' to see baseband firmware string
    Affected if Device does not show Qualcomm-related identifiers in baseband or processor information - if not Qualcomm, not affected by this specific baseband vulnerability
  2. Check baseband firmware version
    Execute 'getprop gsm.version.baseband' or 'getprop ro.baseband' to retrieve the installed LTE baseband firmware version string
    Affected if Unable to retrieve baseband version information or version string indicates non-Qualcomm baseband (e.g., MediaTek, Intel, Samsung) - the vulnerability only affects Qualcomm chipsets
  3. Verify LTE connectivity capability
    Check if device has LTE capability by examining 'getprop ro.telephony.default_network' or checking /sys/class/net/* for LTE interfaces
    Affected if Device has no LTE capability or baseband does not support LTE - the flaw is in LTE baseband firmware specifically
  4. Check security patch level
    Look at 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' or Settings > About Phone > Android security patch level to see last applied update
    Affected if Security patch level is older than 2015-03-01 or shows no patches applied - the advisory indicates patches are needed from Qualcomm/carriers to mitigate this flaw

Device is affected if it uses a Qualcomm LTE baseband chipset (check via baseband firmware string) and has not received baseband/firmware security updates addressing this specific vulnerability.

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 vendor-provided firmware patches from Qualcomm and/or your mobile carrier. Ensure devices receive and install regular security updates, particularly baseband/LTE firmware updates.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,480
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-9051 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-9051 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