AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2017-6274

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-11-14
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
An elevation of Privilege vulnerability exists in the Thermal Driver, where a missing bounds checks in the thermal throttle driver can cause an out-of-bounds write in the kernel. This issue is rated as moderate. Product: Pixel. Version: N/A. Android ID: A-34705801. References: N-CVE-2017-6274.

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

Missing bounds checks in the Android thermal throttle driver allow an out-of-bounds write operation in kernel memory, enabling an authenticated local attacker to escalate privileges to root level.

MitigationApply the relevant Android security patch (distributed via monthly Pixel/Nexus firmware updates) which addresses the thermal driver bounds check vulnerability.

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:all versions

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

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

  1. Check Android security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Build Number or run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' via ADB shell to see the installed security patch date
    Affected if The security patch level is earlier than August 2017 (the month this vulnerability was addressed in Android security bulletins)
  2. Verify thermal driver module presence
    Check if the thermal-engine or thermal daemon process is running: run 'ps -A | grep -i thermal' or check /sys/class/thermal/ for thermal_zone entries via ADB shell
    Affected if The thermal management subsystem is active on the device (vulnerability only applies when this driver is present and operational)
  3. Confirm device is Google Android
    Run 'getprop ro.product.brand' and 'getprop ro.product.model' via ADB shell to verify the device runs Android OS
    Affected if The device runs Google Android OS (this CVE specifically affects Android, not other Linux distributions)
  4. Check kernel version for thermal driver
    Run 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version' via ADB shell to obtain the kernel version, then examine /drivers/thermal/ in the kernel source if available
    Affected if The kernel is an Android-specific build containing the vulnerable thermal throttle driver code

A device is affected if it runs Google Android with a security patch level earlier than August 2017 and has the thermal management driver active.

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 relevant Android security patch (distributed via monthly Pixel/Nexus firmware updates) which addresses the thermal driver bounds check vulnerability.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2017-6274 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