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AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2016-6672

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-10-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 7.0 or later.
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 Synaptics touchscreen driver in Android before 2016-10-05 on Nexus 5X devices allows attackers to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka internal bug 30537088.

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 confidence

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Synaptics touchscreen driver in Android on Nexus 5X devices. A malicious crafted application can exploit this driver flaw (internal bug 30537088) to gain elevated system privileges beyond what a standard application should have.

MitigationApply the October 2016 Android security patch or later to Nexus 5X devices. Since this is a kernel/HAL driver vulnerability, no application-level changes can mitigate it; device firmware updates are required.

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:<= 7.0

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. Verify device model is Nexus 5X
    Go to Settings > About Phone and check the Model number or device name. Alternatively, run `getprop ro.product.device` via ADB shell.
    Affected if The device model is not Nexus 5X (other devices are not affected by this specific vulnerability)
  2. Check Android version is 7.0 or below
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version. Alternatively, run `getprop ro.build.version.release` via ADB shell.
    Affected if Android version is 7.0 or lower (versions 7.1+ and later are not affected)
  3. Confirm Synaptics touchscreen driver is in use
    Check the touchscreen driver information via kernel logs (`dmesg | grep -i synaptics`) or by examining /sys/class/input/ for touchscreen input devices. On affected devices, the driver is typically exposed through /dev/synaptics-rmi4 or similar.
    Affected if A Synaptics RMI4 touchscreen driver is present and active on the device

The environment is affected if it is a Nexus 5X device running Android 7.0 or below with an active Synaptics touchscreen driver.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 7.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the October 2016 Android security patch or later to Nexus 5X devices. Since this is a kernel/HAL driver vulnerability, no application-level changes can mitigate it; device firmware updates are required.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,600
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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-2016-6672 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