CVE-2019-20601
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered on Samsung mobile devices with N(7.x), O(8.x), and P(9.0) (Exynos7570, 7580, 7870, 7880, and 8890 chipsets) software. RKP memory corruption causes an arbitrary write to protected memory. The Samsung ID is SVE-2019-13921-2 (May 2019).
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 in Samsung's Real-time Kernel Protection (RKP) on specific Exynos chipsets (7570, 7580, 7870, 7880, 8890) allows an attacker to perform an arbitrary write to protected memory, potentially achieving privilege escalation on affected Android N (7.x), O (8.x), and P (9.0) devices.
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= 7.0= 7.1.0= 7.1.1= 7.1.2= 8.0= 8.1= 9.0CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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 your device chipset modelCheck the SoC/processor information in Settings > About Phone > CPU Info, or run 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' or 'getprop ro.hardware' in a terminal to determine the chipset (Exynos 7570, 7580, 7870, 7880, or 8890)Affected if The chipset is one of: Exynos 7570, 7580, 7870, 7880, or 8890
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Check the Android OS versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' in a terminalAffected if The Android version is 7.0, 7.1.x, 8.0, 8.1, or 9.0
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Verify this is a Samsung device with RKPConfirm the device is a Samsung Galaxy model (RKP is Samsung-specific), and verify RKP is present in the kernel by checking /sys/kernel/security/rkp or consulting device kernel documentationAffected if The device is a Samsung device using RKP on the affected chipset and Android versions
You are affected if your Samsung device uses an Exynos 7570, 7580, 7870, 7880, or 8890 chipset and runs Android 7.0 through 9.0, as this specific combination contains the vulnerable RKP memory corruption flaw.
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 Samsung firmware updates for affected devices; this vulnerability requires patches at the firmware/kernel level and cannot be mitigated through configuration changes alone.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-20601 — 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-2019-20601 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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