CVE-2019-14091
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 · uneditedDouble free issue in NPU due to lack of resource locking mechanism to avoid race condition in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music in MDM9607, QCS405, Rennell, Saipan, SC8180X, SDX55, SM8150, SM8250, SXR2130
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 confidenceA double-free vulnerability exists in the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. The issue stems from a race condition due to missing resource locking mechanisms, allowing a local attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service by freeing the same memory twice.
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 versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/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 the Snapdragon chipset modelCheck the device specifications, system information, or /proc/cpuinfo to determine the exact Qualcomm Snapdragon model (e.g., SM8150, SM8250, SDX55, etc.)Affected if The chipset model matches any of these: Mdm9607, Qcs405, Rennell, Saipan, Sc8180x, Sdx55, Sm8150, Sm8250
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Verify NPU hardware presenceCheck if the device has a Neural Processing Unit by reviewing hardware specifications, device tree, or using commands like 'ls /sys/class/npu' or checking 'dmesg' for NPU-related kernel messagesAffected if The device has an NPU hardware component present in the system
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Confirm NPU driver is loadedReview loaded kernel modules (lsmod) or check /proc/modules for NPU-related drivers such as 'npu', 'qcom-npu', or similar NPU driver modulesAffected if NPU kernel driver modules are loaded and active in the system
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Check firmware version stringQuery the NPU firmware version through vendor-specific tools, debug interfaces, or check /vendor/firmware/ for NPU-related firmware files and their version indicatorsAffected if The NPU firmware version cannot be determined or is earlier than vendor patches (all versions of affected chipsets are initially vulnerable)
The device is affected if it uses any of the listed Snapdragon chipset models (Mdm9607, Qcs405, Rennell, Saipan, Sc8180x, Sdx55, Sm8150, Sm8250) and has an active NPU with firmware that has not been patched by the vendor.
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 vendor-supplied firmware/security updates from Qualcomm and device OEMs. This is a low-privilege to high-privilege escalation vector requiring local access; prioritize patching mobile devices and embedded systems running affected Snapdragon variants.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-14091 — 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-2019-14091 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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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.
- 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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