AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2019-2172

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-09-27
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
In libxaac there is a possible information disclosure due to uninitialized data. This could lead to information disclosure with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is needed for exploitation. Product: AndroidVersions: Android-10Android ID: A-113035224

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

A memory safety vulnerability in libxaac (Android's AAC audio decoding library) allows uninitialized memory data to be disclosed. An attacker could craft a malicious audio file that, when processed by the library, exposes sensitive uninitialized heap data to the attacker without requiring elevated privileges. User interaction is required to trigger the vulnerability (playing/processing a specially crafted audio file).

MitigationApply the Android security patch level that addresses CVE-2019-2172 (released in Google's Android Security Bulletin). Users should update their Android-10 devices to the latest available security update. Until patched, exercise caution with untrusted audio files.

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:= 10.0

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/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. Verify Android version is 10.0
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' in ADB shell
    Affected if Version displays exactly 10.0 (Android 10)
  2. Check security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level or run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' in ADB shell
    Affected if Patch level is earlier than the date specified in the Android Security Bulletin for CVE-2019-2172 (the fix release)
  3. Identify apps with audio processing capability
    Review installed applications that can open or play audio files, particularly media players, browsers, or messaging apps that process audio attachments
    Affected if Apps capable of processing untrusted audio files are installed and used

The device is affected if it runs Android 10.0 with a security patch level prior to the CVE-2019-2172 fix date and processes audio files using libxaac.

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 Android security patch level that addresses CVE-2019-2172 (released in Google's Android Security Bulletin). Users should update their Android-10 devices to the latest available security update. Until patched, exercise caution with untrusted audio files.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-2172 — 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-2019-2172 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