AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2020-0108

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-08-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
In postNotification of ServiceRecord.java, there is a possible bypass of foreground process restrictions due to an uncaught exception. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.Product: AndroidVersions: Android-10 Android-8.1 Android-9Android ID: A-140108616

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 local attacker can exploit an uncaught exception in the postNotification method of ServiceRecord.java to bypass Android's foreground process restrictions, achieving local privilege escalation without user interaction.

MitigationApply Android security patches (March 2020 or later). For custom Android builds, fix exception handling in ServiceRecord.java postNotification to ensure foreground process restrictions are properly enforced.

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:= 8.1= 9.0= 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
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. Verify Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run `getprop ro.build.version.release` via ADB shell
    Affected if The version is 8.1, 9.0, or 10.0 exactly (not a later version)
  2. Check installed security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level, or run `getprop ro.build.version.security_patch` via ADB shell
    Affected if The patch level is earlier than March 2020 (format: YYYY-MM-DD, so dates before 2020-03-01)
  3. Confirm framework-level vulnerability
    For ROM developers or security researchers: decompile framework.jar or services.jar from /system/framework/ and inspect ServiceRecord.java for the postNotification method - verify exception handling exists
    Affected if The postNotification method lacks try-catch blocks around notification posting logic, allowing uncaught exceptions to bypass foreground process checks

You are affected if your device runs Android 8.1, 9.0, or 10.0 and has a security patch level before March 2020.

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 Android security patches (March 2020 or later). For custom Android builds, fix exception handling in ServiceRecord.java postNotification to ensure foreground process restrictions are properly enforced.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,720
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,352.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-0108 — 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-2020-0108 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