Apq8017Hardware / appliance · Qualcomm

CVE-2020-11139

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-01-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Out of bound memory access while processing frames due to lack of check of invalid frames received in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon IoT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables, Snapdragon Wired Infrastructure and Networking

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

This is an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon processors across multiple product lines (Auto, Compute, Connectivity, Consumer IOT, Industrial IOT, IoT, Mobile, Voice & Music, Wearables, Wired Infrastructure and Networking). The vulnerability exists because the firmware lacks proper validation checks for invalid frames during processing, allowing an attacker to trigger out-of-bounds memory access.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied firmware/security patches from Qualcomm and device manufacturers. Until patches are available, consider network-level filtering to block malformed frames from untrusted sources.

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
Apq8017Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8037Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8052Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8053Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8056Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8064auHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8076Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Apq8096auHardware / appliance
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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Identify the processor model in your device
    On Linux: cat /proc/cpuinfo or lshw | grep -i cpu. On Android: Settings > About Phone > Processor info, or use apps like CPU-Z. On Windows: System Information > Processor. On network devices: check vendor documentation or /proc/cpuinfo
    Affected if The displayed processor model matches any of the following: Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8052, Apq8053, Apq8056, Apq8064au, Apq8076, or Apq8096au
  2. Confirm the chipset is a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ variant
    Review the processor identification output for 'APQ' or 'Qualcomm' branding. APQ stands for Application Processor Quotient (Qualcomm's notation for application processors without baseband)
    Affected if The processor is identified as a Qualcomm APQ-series chip from the affected list
  3. Verify the firmware version if displayed
    Check /proc/version or device-specific firmware interfaces. Some devices show firmware version in /proc/cpuinfo or via 'dmesg' on Linux. On Android, check Settings > About Phone > Build Number or use *#*#4636#*#*
    Affected if A firmware version is shown, but note that ALL versions of the affected chipsets are vulnerable per the CVE (no version numbers are listed as fixed)
  4. Assess if the device processes network or communication frames
    Determine if the device uses its network interface for any communication. This is typically always true for connected devices using the affected processors
    Affected if The device has any active network interface (WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, cellular) - the vulnerability triggers during frame processing

If your device contains any of the listed Qualcomm APQ processors (Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8052, Apq8053, Apq8056, Apq8064au, Apq8076, Apq8096au), you are affected since all versions of these chipsets lack proper validation for invalid frames.

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 vendor-supplied firmware/security patches from Qualcomm and device manufacturers. Until patches are available, consider network-level filtering to block malformed frames from untrusted sources.

Fix this in Apq8017 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation40.0 h
  • Testing24.0 h
  • Review / QA16.0 h
88.0 hours of engineering $15,280
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11139 — 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-2020-11139 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