CVE-2020-11148
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 · uneditedUse after free issue in HIDL while using callback to post event in Rx thread when internal mutex is not acquired and meantime close is triggered and callback instance is deleted in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wearables
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 confidenceA race condition in HIDL (Hardware Interface Definition Language) causes a use-after-free vulnerability when a callback posts events in an Rx thread without acquiring the internal mutex, while a concurrent close operation deletes the callback instance, leading to dangling pointer dereference.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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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Identify the chipset modelRun 'getprop ro.board.platform' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to identify the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. Also check 'getprop ro.hardware' for additional hardware identifiers.Affected if The chipset matches any of: Apq8017, Apq8053, Msm8917, Msm8953, Pm215, Pm3003a, Pm439, or Pm6125
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Verify HIDL framework is in useCheck for HIDL service manager by running 'getprop | grep hal' or checking /vendor/etc/vintf/manifest.xml for HIDL service entries.Affected if HIDL services are registered and active on the system, which is typical on Android devices with these chipsets
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Check for active HIDL service instancesRun 'lshal' or 'hidl list' to enumerate running HIDL service instances that may have callback interfaces.Affected if HIDL service instances with callback bindings are active, creating the potential race condition window
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Confirm concurrent callback and close patternsInspect any custom HIDL service implementations or HALs that may perform asynchronous callback operations. Review logs for indications of rapid service stop/restart cycles.Affected if The system runs HIDL services that perform callback event posting from Rx threads while also supporting service close/deregistration operations
If the device uses any of the affected Qualcomm chipsets (Apq8017, Apq8053, Msm8917, Msm8953, Pm215, Pm3003a, Pm439, Pm6125) and runs HIDL services with callback interfaces, the environment is potentially affected by this race condition vulnerability.
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 vendor firmware/security updates from Qualcomm for affected Snapdragon chipsets; prioritize mobile and wearable devices given the race condition timing sensitivity.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,520.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11148 — 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-2020-11148 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
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