AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2017-13211

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-01-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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 bta_scan_results_cb_impl of btif_ble_scanner.cc, there is possible resource exhaustion if a large number of repeated BLE scan results are received. This could lead to a remote denial of service of a critical system process with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Product: Android. Versions: 8.0. Android ID: A-65174158.

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

In the Android Bluetooth stack (btif_ble_scanner.cc), the BLE scan results callback handler (bta_scan_results_cb_impl) lacks proper resource management or throttling when processing incoming BLE advertisement data. An attacker in BLE range can flood the device with a large volume of repeated BLE scan results, causing resource exhaustion (memory/CPU) in the Bluetooth system process, leading to a denial of service crash.

MitigationApply the Android security patch for the 2017-12-01 or later CVE bundle (Android 8.0). This is a platform-level vulnerability requiring a system update; no user-facing workarounds are available. Consider BLE scanning app restrictions as a temporary measure.

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:= 8.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 Android version is 8.0
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shell
    Affected if Version displayed is exactly 8.0 (Oreo)
  2. Confirm Bluetooth is enabled
    Check Settings > Bluetooth toggle, or run 'settings get global bluetooth_on' via ADB shell
    Affected if Bluetooth is turned on
  3. Check for active BLE scan sessions
    Run 'dumpsys bluetooth_manager' or check logcat for 'BLE scan' activity via 'logcat -d | grep -i "bta_scan_results"'
    Affected if Any app or system service is actively performing BLE scans (continuous scanning observed)
  4. Inspect Bluetooth system process resource state
    Run 'dumpsys bluetooth' and monitor for high memory usage or CPU consumption in the bluetooth process during active scanning
    Affected if Bluetooth process shows abnormally high resource usage when BLE scanning is active

A device is affected if it is running Android 8.0 with Bluetooth enabled and any active BLE scanning is occurring, as the vulnerability triggers when the bta_scan_results_cb_impl callback processes incoming BLE advertisements without throttling.

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 Android security patch for the 2017-12-01 or later CVE bundle (Android 8.0). This is a platform-level vulnerability requiring a system update; no user-facing workarounds are available. Consider BLE scanning app restrictions as a temporary measure.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing10.0 h
  • Review / QA5.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,160
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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-2017-13211 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