AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2019-20783

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-04-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 LG mobile devices with Android OS 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, and 8.1 (North America CDMA) software. The LTE protocol implementation allows a bypass of AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement). The LG ID is LVE-SMP-180014 (February 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 · moderate confidence

This vulnerability allows bypass of AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) in the LTE protocol implementation on affected LG mobile devices running Android 7.0-8.1. This critical flaw enables attackers to potentially impersonate devices or conduct man-in-the-middle attacks on LTE networks by circumventing the fundamental authentication mechanism that secures 4G/LTE connections.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied firmware/security updates from LG promptly. Until patches are available, users on affected devices should exercise caution when connecting to untrusted LTE networks and consider using VPN services as an additional security layer.

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= 7.2= 8.0= 8.1

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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. Identify device manufacturer
    Check if the device is an LG mobile device by going to Settings > About Phone > Manufacturer or running 'getprop ro.product.manufacturer' via ADB
    Affected if Device is not manufactured by LG - the vulnerability affects only LG mobile devices
  2. Check Android OS version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB
    Affected if Android version is 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, or 8.1 - versions outside this range are not affected
  3. Verify LTE baseband firmware
    Check the baseband/modem firmware version via 'getprop gsm.version.baseband' or 'getprop ro.baseband' via ADB - contact LG support to confirm if the specific baseband build includes the security fix
    Affected if Cannot verify patch status from OS level - the vulnerability exists in the LTE protocol implementation in the baseband firmware, and the patch status requires vendor confirmation

User is affected if they are using an LG mobile device with Android 7.0-8.1 and the LTE baseband firmware has not been updated with the security patch

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 vendor-supplied firmware/security updates from LG promptly. Until patches are available, users on affected devices should exercise caution when connecting to untrusted LTE networks and consider using VPN services as an additional security layer.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing16.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,080
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2019-20783 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