AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2015-9070

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 buffer over-read vulnerability exists in a TrustZone syscall.

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 buffer over-read vulnerability exists in a TrustZone syscall within Qualcomm Android devices using Linux kernel releases from CAF (Code Aurora Forum). TrustZone provides ARM's Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for secure processing, and this flaw could allow reading sensitive data from protected memory regions or potentially escaping the TEE sandbox.

MitigationApply Qualcomm/CAF firmware and Android security patch updates addressing this TrustZone vulnerability. Users should ensure devices receive the latest security updates from their device manufacturers.

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 the device chipset manufacturer
    Check the device hardware specifications or use commands like 'getprop ro.hardware' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to determine if the device uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset
    Affected if The device does NOT use a Qualcomm chipset - the vulnerability is specific to Qualcomm processors
  2. Verify the kernel source is from Code Aurora Forum (CAF)
    Check kernel version strings or build information using 'uname -a' or 'cat /proc/version' to see if the kernel includes CAF branches
    Affected if The kernel is NOT built from CAF sources - the flaw exists specifically in CAF kernel releases for Qualcomm processors
  3. Confirm TrustZone/TEE is present on the device
    Check for Trusted Execution Environment by looking for /dev/tz_* device nodes, or using 'getprop' to check for 'ro.trustonic' or 'ro.trusty' properties, or checking /sys/class/misc/tz*/ for TrustZone entries
    Affected if TrustZone is NOT present or not initialized - the vulnerability only applies when TrustZone is active as the secure OS
  4. Check if the device runs a mainline Android version
    Use 'getprop ro.build.version.sdk' to determine the Android SDK version, as this vulnerability affects all Android versions on affected hardware
    Affected if The device is NOT running Android (e.g., is a non-Android embedded system) - though the primary target is Android devices

The device is affected if it uses a Qualcomm chipset with a CAF-derived kernel and has TrustZone/TEE enabled, regardless of Android version, as this is a firmware-level flaw in the TrustZone syscall implementation.

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 Qualcomm/CAF firmware and Android security patch updates addressing this TrustZone vulnerability. Users should ensure devices receive the latest security updates from their device manufacturers.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,120
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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-2015-9070 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