CVE-2017-13172
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 · uneditedAn elevation of privilege vulnerability in the MediaTek bluetooth driver. Product: Android. Versions: Android kernel. Android ID A-36493287. References: M-ALPS03495791.
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 confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the MediaTek Bluetooth driver for Android. The flaw allows a locally-installed malicious application to potentially gain elevated system privileges by exploiting a flaw in the kernel-level MediaTek bluetooth driver (M-ALPS03495791).
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify MediaTek chipset usageCheck device information through Settings > About Phone > Hardware/Processor details, or run 'getprop ro.hardware' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to see if the device uses a MediaTek (MTK) chipsetAffected if The device does not use a MediaTek chipset - the vulnerability only affects MediaTek-based devices with the vulnerable driver
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Check Android security patch levelNavigate to Settings > About Phone > Software Information > Security patch level, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch'Affected if The security patch level is November 2017 or earlier - devices with older patches are potentially vulnerable
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Verify Bluetooth driver versionCheck the MediaTek Bluetooth driver version through system logs when Bluetooth is enabled, or via 'dmesg | grep -i bluetooth' after activating BluetoothAffected if The Bluetooth driver version is M-ALPS03495791 or earlier, or the specific vulnerable driver is present on the device
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Confirm Bluetooth is enabledCheck if Bluetooth is turned on through Settings > Bluetooth, or run 'settings get global bluetooth_on'Affected if Bluetooth is enabled - the vulnerability requires the MediaTek Bluetooth driver to be active for exploitation
A device is affected if it uses a MediaTek chipset with the vulnerable Bluetooth driver (M-ALPS03495791) and has a security patch level of November 2017 or earlier, with Bluetooth functionality enabled.
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 dataApply security patches from MediaTek and Android system updates released after the November 2017 Android Security Bulletin. Users should ensure their devices receive the latest system and firmware updates.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,312.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-13172 — 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-2017-13172 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
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