CVE-2017-6289
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 · uneditedIn Android before the 2018-05-05 security patch level, NVIDIA Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) contains a memory corruption (due to unusual root cause) vulnerability, which if run within the speculative execution of the TEE, may lead to local escalation of privileges. This issue is rated as critical. Android: A-72830049. Reference: N-CVE-2017-6289.
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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in NVIDIA's Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for Android devices. The flaw occurs during speculative execution within the TEE and can be exploited for local privilege escalation. This is a firmware-level issue affecting NVIDIA TEE implementations prior to the May 2018 security patch.
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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Determine if the device has an NVIDIA TEE implementationCheck the device hardware specifications or use 'getprop' commands via ADB to query ro.hardware or related system properties that indicate NVIDIA chipset and TEE presenceAffected if The device does not use an NVIDIA TEE, then it is not affected by this specific CVE
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Check the Android Security Patch LevelGo to Settings > About Phone > Security Patch Level or use 'adb shell dumpsys security' to retrieve the installed security patch dateAffected if The security patch level is earlier than 2018-05-05, indicating the device has not received the fix for this NVIDIA TEE vulnerability
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Verify the TEE firmware version if accessibleAttempt to query the TEE version through NVIDIA-specific diagnostic tools or check /vendor/firmware/ for TEE-related firmware files if present on the deviceAffected if The TEE firmware version cannot be verified or is confirmed to be older than the May 2018 NVIDIA firmware update that addresses this vulnerability
The device is affected if it uses an NVIDIA TEE implementation and has a security patch level earlier than 2018-05-05 or lacks the NVIDIA firmware update.
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 the Android security patch level from 2018-05-05 or later, which contains the NVIDIA TEE fix. Device manufacturers must deploy the vendor-specific firmware update to address this vulnerability.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,080.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-6289 — 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-2017-6289 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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