CVE-2018-14991
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 · uneditedThe Coolpad Defiant device with a build fingerprint of Coolpad/cp3632a/cp3632a:7.1.1/NMF26F/099480857:user/release-keys, the ZTE ZMAX Pro with a build fingerprint of ZTE/P895T20/urd:6.0.1/MMB29M/20170418.114928:user/release-keys, and the T-Mobile Revvl Plus with a build fingerprint of Coolpad/alchemy/alchemy:7.1.1/143.14.171129.3701A-TMO/buildf_nj_02-206:user/release-keys all contain a vulnerable, pre-installed Rich Communication Services (RCS) app. These devices contain an that app has a package name of com.suntek.mway.rcs.app.service (versionCode=1, versionName=RCS_sdk_M_native_20161008_01; versionCode=1, versionName=RCS_sdk_M_native_20170406_01) with an exported content provider named com.suntek.mway.rcs.app.service.provider.message.MessageProvider and a refactored version of the app with a package name of com.rcs.gsma.na.sdk (versionCode=1, versionName=RCS_SDK_20170804_01) with a content provider named com.rcs.gsma.na.provider.message.MessageProvider allow any app co-located on the device to read, write, insert, and modify the user's text messages. This is enabled by an exported content provider app component that serves as a wrapper to the official content provider that contains the user's text messages. This app cannot be disabled by the user and the attack can be performed by a zero-permission app.
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 analysisThe application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.
General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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 versionsall versionsall 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
- 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
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.
dbcve · scoped- This vulnerability exists in pre-installed system apps (RCS) on specific budget Android devices that cannot be patched through normal update mechanisms.
- The affected apps (com.suntek.mway.rcs.app.service and com.rcs.gsma.na.sdk) are part of the firmware and cannot be disabled or removed by users.
- No vendor firmware updates addressing this CVE are referenced in the available sources.
- For mitigation, users would need root access to disable or remove the vulnerable system app via ADB commands (pm disable-user --user 0), but this is not a standard remediation and may void warranties.
- Consider migrating to a device that receives ongoing security updates if this vulnerability poses a critical risk.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
There is no version to upgrade to and no patch to apply. Every affected install stays exposed until the vendor ships a fix — or somebody else builds one.
Free. We build fixes in the order the community asks for them — and we’ll tell you the moment this one lands.
We develop and verify an original fix where the vendor hasn’t, from $2,300. Deployed to your staging first — never straight to production.
Scope it with usSee what else the community needs solved on the solutions-needed board.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-14991 — 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-2018-14991 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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