AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2020-0277

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-09-17
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 NetworkPolicyManagerService, there is a possible permissions bypass due to a missing permission check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege allowing a malicious app to modify the device's data plan with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.Product: AndroidVersions: Android-11Android ID: A-148627993

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

In NetworkPolicyManagerService, a missing permission check allows any locally installed malicious app to modify device data plan settings without proper authorization, achieving local privilege escalation. The vulnerability stems from the service not verifying that callers have the appropriate network policy permissions before allowing data plan modifications.

MitigationApply Android security patches (specifically the fix for A-148627993 in Android-11). Users should only install applications from trusted sources to mitigate risk from malicious apps exploiting this flaw.

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:= 11.0

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. Check Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shell
    Affected if Version is exactly 11.0 (Android 11)
  2. Check security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level or run 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' via ADB shell
    Affected if Patch level is earlier than the date containing the fix for A-148627993 (the specific date varies by carrier/device)
  3. Verify NetworkPolicyManagerService exposure
    Review app permissions granted to unknown or untrusted applications installed on the device
    Affected if Any untrusted app holds ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE or similar network-related permissions that could interact with this service

If the device runs Android 11.0 and lacks the security patch containing the A-148627993 fix, a malicious locally installed app could modify data plan settings without proper network policy permissions.

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 (specifically the fix for A-148627993 in Android-11). Users should only install applications from trusted sources to mitigate risk from malicious apps exploiting this flaw.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,800
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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-2020-0277 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