CVE-2020-11164
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 · uneditedu'Third-party app may also call the broadcasts in Perfdump and cause privilege escalation issue due to improper access control' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wearables in Agatti, APQ8096AU, APQ8098, Bitra, Kamorta, MSM8909W, MSM8917, MSM8940, Nicobar, QCA6390, QCM2150, QCS605, Rennell, SA6155P, SA8155P, Saipan, SDA660, SDM429W, SDM450, SDM630, SDM636, SDM660, SDM670, SDM710, SM6150, SM7150, SM8150, SM8250, SXR1130, SXR2130
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 confidenceThird-party applications can send broadcasts to the Perfdump service (a performance monitoring tool) due to improper access control checks. This allows untrusted apps to interact with a privileged system service and potentially execute code with elevated system privileges, resulting in local privilege escalation.
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
- 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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Identify device chipset modelCheck the device specifications or use commands like 'getprop ro.hardware' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to determine the Qualcomm chipset model (Agatti, Apq8096au, Apq8098, Bitra, Kamorta, Msm8909w, Msm8917, or Msm8940)Affected if The device uses any of the following chipsets: Agatti, Apq8096au, Apq8098, Bitra, Kamorta, Msm8909w, Msm8917, or Msm8940
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Check firmware versionUse 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check system settings under About Phone > Android version to obtain the firmware/build versionAffected if The firmware version has not been patched - all versions of the listed chipsets are affected per the advisory
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Verify Perfdump service exposureReview app manifest files or use 'dumpsys package perfd' to check if the Perfdump service (com.perfdump) is registered and whether it exports broadcast receivers without proper permission checksAffected if The Perfdump service accepts broadcasts from untrusted applications without verifying caller permissions
If the device uses one of the affected Qualcomm chipsets (Agatti, Apq8096au, Apq8098, Bitra, Kamorta, Msm8909w, Msm8917, Msm8940) and the Perfdump service is accessible to third-party apps without proper access control, the device is vulnerable to local privilege escalation.
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 dataThis is a firmware-level vulnerability requiring a patch from Qualcomm and subsequent OTA update from device manufacturers. Users should apply manufacturer firmware updates once available. There is no user-facing configuration mitigation.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation10.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,144.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11164 — 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-2020-11164 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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