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AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2019-20618

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 P(9.0) software. The Pin Window feature allows unauthenticated unpinning of an app. The Samsung ID is SVE-2018-13765 (March 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

Samsung mobile devices running Android 9.0 (Pie) contain a vulnerability in the Screen Pinning feature where unauthenticated users can unpin a pinned application without providing credentials, allowing bypass of the intended screen pinning security control.

MitigationApply the March 2019 Samsung security update (SVE-2018-13765) or later to affected devices to remediate the Pin Window authentication bypass vulnerability.

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:= 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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Android version is 9.0
    Check device Settings > About Phone > Android version; verify it shows 9.0 (Pie)
    Affected if Device is running Android 9.0 (Pie)
  2. Verify Screen Pinning feature is enabled
    Check Settings > Security > Screen Pinning (or Pin Window) is turned on, or determine if any apps are currently pinned on the device
    Affected if Screen Pinning feature is enabled or apps are pinned on an Android 9.0 device
  3. Check Samsung security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level and note the date; verify it is earlier than the March 2019 Samsung security update
    Affected if Device is a Samsung running Android 9.0 with Security patch level before March 2019 and Screen Pinning is in use

A user is affected if they are on a Samsung device running Android 9.0 with Screen Pinning enabled and a security patch level predating the March 2019 Samsung update.

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 March 2019 Samsung security update (SVE-2018-13765) or later to affected devices to remediate the Pin Window authentication bypass vulnerability.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,180
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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-2019-20618 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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