dbcve.org
Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 May 2022.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2019-2215

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-10-11
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Public exploit Zero-click Patch available

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
A use-after-free in binder.c allows an elevation of privilege from an application to the Linux Kernel. No user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability, however exploitation does require either the installation of a malicious local application or a separate vulnerability in a network facing application.Product: AndroidAndroid ID: A-141720095

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 use-after-free vulnerability in the Android binder.c IPC driver allows a malicious local application to elevate privileges to Linux Kernel level. The vulnerability is exploitable without user interaction, though attackers need either a malicious app installed locally or a separate network-facing application vulnerability to chain with.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied Android security patch (January 2020 or later). Organizations should also enforce policies against installing untrusted applications and ensure network-facing applications are hardened to prevent initial access.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 16.04
AndroidOperating system
Affected:all versions
Cloud BackupApplication
Affected:all versions
Data Availability ServicesApplication
Affected:all versions
Hci Management NodeApplication
Affected:all versions
Service ProcessorApplication
Affected:all versions
SolidfireApplication
Affected:all versions

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Confirm the target system runs Android
    Check if the device is running Android by looking for /system/build.prop or checking the OS identifier in system settings
    Affected if The system runs Google Android - all versions are affected until patched
  2. Check Android security patch level
    Read /system/build.prop and look for the 'ro.build.version.security_patch' property, or check Settings > About Phone > Android security patch level
    Affected if The patch level is earlier than January 2020 (the value will be something like '2019-12-05' or earlier, or the property is missing entirely)
  3. Check kernel version on Linux systems with binder
    Run 'uname -r' to get the kernel version, or check if the binder module is loaded with 'lsmod | grep binder'
    Affected if The system runs a vulnerable Debian 8.0 or Ubuntu 16.04 kernel with the binder driver enabled and the kernel is unpatched for CVE-2019-2215
  4. Verify binder driver is in use
    On Android or Linux systems with Android-derived kernels, check if the binder driver is active by looking for /dev/binder in the filesystem, or check kernel config for CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC
    Affected if The binder driver (/dev/binder) is present and the system has not applied the January 2020 Android security patch

The system is affected if it runs Android without the January 2020 or later security patch, or runs an unpatched Linux kernel with the binder driver on affected Debian 8.0 or Ubuntu 16.04 versions.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch packetstormsecurity.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied Android security patch (January 2020 or later). Organizations should also enforce policies against installing untrusted applications and ensure network-facing applications are hardened to prevent initial access.

Recommended fix High confidence

Android 10 or later (with October 2019 security patch level); Debian 9+; Ubuntu 16.04 with latest kernel updates

  1. For Android devices: Upgrade to Android 10 or later, which contains the patched kernel with the fixed binder driver
  2. For Android devices: Ensure the device has the October 2019 or later Android security patch level installed
  3. For Debian Linux 8.0 (Jessie): Upgrade to Debian 9 (Stretch) or later to obtain a kernel with the fix; Debian 8 is end-of-life and no longer receives security updates
  4. For Ubuntu Linux 16.04: Apply the available kernel security updates via 'apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade' or 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' to install the patched kernel version
  5. For other affected products (Cloud Backup, Data Availability Services, Hci Management Node, Service Processor, Solidfire): Apply vendor-supplied patches or firmware updates that address CVE-2019-2215 in the Linux kernel binder driver
  6. After kernel update, reboot the system to load the patched kernel
Caveat Android downgrades may reintroduce vulnerability; some older hardware may have driver compatibility issues with newer kernels; kernel updates may require reboot

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,200
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,320.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-2215 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2019-2215 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