CVE-2016-0818
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 · uneditedThe caching functionality in the TrustManagerImpl class in TrustManagerImpl.java in Conscrypt in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.x before 5.1.1 LMY49H, and 6.x before 2016-03-01 mishandles the distinction between an intermediate CA and a trusted root CA, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof servers by leveraging access to an intermediate CA to issue a certificate, aka internal bug 26232830.
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 confidenceThe TrustManagerImpl class in Conscrypt (Android's SSL/TLS provider) contains a caching flaw where intermediate CA certificates are incorrectly treated as trusted root CAs. This allows an attacker with access to a valid intermediate CA certificate to issue fraudulent server certificates and perform man-in-the-middle attacks, bypassing proper certificate chain validation.
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= 4.0= 4.0.1= 4.0.2= 4.0.3= 4.0.4= 4.1= 4.1.2= 4.2= 4.2.1= 4.2.2= 4.3= 4.3.1CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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 Android versionGo to Settings > About Phone (or About Device) > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shellAffected if Version is 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4, 4.1, 4.1.2, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3, or 4.3.1
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Check Conscrypt TrustManager implementationExamine the Conscrypt library in /system/lib/ or within the Android framework JAR at /system/framework/conscrypt.jar for the TrustManagerImpl classAffected if TrustManagerImpl class is present and processes SSL/TLS connections on the device
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Review any apps or system services that use HTTPS, VPN connections, or other TLS-protected communicationAffected if Any app or service uses SSL/TLS networking without additional certificate pinning protection
The device is affected if it runs Android version 4.0 through 4.3.1 and uses Conscrypt TrustManager for certificate chain validation, allowing intermediate CA certificates to be incorrectly trusted for MITM attacks.
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 dataUpdate Android devices to version 4.4.4, 5.1.1 LMY49H, or the March 2016 6.x security patch level to receive the corrected TrustManager certificate chain validation logic.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,808.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-0818 — 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-2016-0818 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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