CVE-2019-9378
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 · uneditedIn the Activity Manager service, there is a possible permission bypass due to incorrect permission check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Product: AndroidVersions: Android-10Android ID: A-124539196
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 confidenceIn the Android Activity Manager service, an incorrect permission check allows a local attacker to bypass normal permission enforcement, achieving privilege escalation without requiring additional execution privileges or user interaction.
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= 10.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Android OS versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shellAffected if The version is exactly 10.0 (Android Q)
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Check Android security patch levelGo to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' via ADB shellAffected if The patch level is earlier than the Android-10 security update that addresses this CVE (patch date before the fix release)
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Verify Activity Manager service exposureUse ADB to check: 'dumpsys activity' and review whether third-party apps can trigger Activity Manager operations without proper permission checksAffected if Apps without SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW or similar elevated permissions can access protected Activity Manager functions
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Check for privilege escalation indicatorsReview app permissions via 'dumpsys package <package_name>' and monitor whether lower-privilege apps can invoke higher-privilege Activity Manager operationsAffected if A local app without elevated permissions can perform actions that should require system-level or signature-level permissions
The environment is affected only if running Android 10.0 exactly AND the device has not received the Android-10 security patch that includes the CVE-2019-9378 fix.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply the Android security patch for the version that includes the fix (Android-10 patch level). This is a system-level vulnerability requiring an OS update from the device vendor.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,576.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-9378 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-9378 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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