AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2019-20603

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-03-24
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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 issue was discovered on Samsung mobile devices with N(7.x), O(8.0), and P(9.0) (Qualcomm chipsets) software. The ESECOMM Trustlet has a NULL pointer dereference. The Samsung ID is SVE-2019-13950 (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 confidence

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the ESECOMM Trustlet on Samsung mobile devices running Android N (7.x), O (8.0), and P (9.0) with Qualcomm chipsets. Trustlets are trusted execution environment components running within ARM TrustZone, making this a security-critical flaw that could potentially cause denial of service or allow privilege escalation.

MitigationApply the Samsung security patch released in May 2019 (SVE-2019-13950) via system firmware update. Organizations should identify affected devices in their fleet and ensure they receive and install the vendor update.

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:= 7.0= 7.1.0= 7.1.1= 7.1.2= 8.0= 9.0

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Verify the Android version is affected
    Check the Android version in Settings > About Phone, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB
    Affected if The version equals 7.0, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.0, or 9.0
  2. Confirm the device is a Samsung mobile device
    Check the device manufacturer via Settings > About Phone, or run 'getprop ro.product.manufacturer' or 'getprop ro.product.brand' via ADB
    Affected if The manufacturer or brand is Samsung
  3. Verify the device uses a Qualcomm chipset
    Check the processor information in Settings > About Phone > Hardware or run 'getprop ro.hardware' or inspect /proc/cpuinfo via ADB
    Affected if The chipset or hardware is identified as Qualcomm-based
  4. Confirm TrustZone and trustlets are active on the device
    Check for TrustZone-related processes or services running on the device. This may involve reviewing running processes via 'ps -A' or checking TrustZone-related system properties via ADB
    Affected if TrustZone and trustlet components are enabled and running on the device

A user is affected if they have a Samsung mobile device with a Qualcomm chipset running Android 7.0, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.0, or 9.0 where TrustZone and the ESECOMM trustlet are 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 Samsung security patch released in May 2019 (SVE-2019-13950) via system firmware update. Organizations should identify affected devices in their fleet and ensure they receive and install the vendor update.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,920
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,672.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-20603 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-20603 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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