AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2017-0388

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-01-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An elevation of privilege vulnerability in the External Storage Provider could enable a local secondary user to read data from an external storage SD card inserted by the primary user. This issue is rated as High because it is a general bypass for operating system protections that isolate application data from other applications. Product: Android. Versions: 6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, 7.1. Android ID: A-32523490.

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

This is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Android's External Storage Provider that allows a local secondary user to bypass OS application data isolation protections and read data from external storage (SD cards) inserted by the primary user. The flaw enables cross-user data leakage from the primary user's external storage to a secondary user profile.

MitigationApply the appropriate Android security patch level (2017-01-01 or later) for affected versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, and 7.1. Organizations should also enforce storage encryption and verify that multi-user profiles have proper isolation configured.

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:= 6.0= 6.0.1= 7.0= 7.1.0

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone and note the Android version number shown
    Affected if The version is exactly 6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, or 7.1.0
  2. Confirm multi-user profile is active
    Go to Settings > Users and check if more than one user account exists on the device
    Affected if Multiple user profiles are configured and a secondary user session has been created
  3. Verify external storage is accessible
    Check if an SD card is inserted and accessible from the device settings under Storage or SD card settings
    Affected if External storage (SD card) is present and mounted on the device
  4. Check installed security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level and note the date shown
    Affected if The patch level is earlier than 2017-01-01 on an affected Android version (6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, or 7.1.0)

You are affected if your device runs Android 6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, or 7.1.0, has multiple user profiles configured, uses external storage, and has a security patch level older than January 2017.

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 appropriate Android security patch level (2017-01-01 or later) for affected versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, and 7.1. Organizations should also enforce storage encryption and verify that multi-user profiles have proper isolation configured.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2017-0388 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