CVE-2020-11166
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 · uneditedPotential out of bound read exception when UE receives unusually large number of padding octets in the beginning of ROHC header in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon IoT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, 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 memory safety vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets allows an out-of-bounds read when processing ROHC (Robust Header Compression) headers containing an unusually large number of padding octets. The issue exists in the baseband/firmware processing of cellular packets, where improper bounds checking on the padding field can cause the device to read beyond allocated buffer boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive memory contents.
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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the Qualcomm chipset in the deviceUse system commands such as 'lspci', 'dmesg', 'cat /proc/cpuinfo', or check device technical specifications to determine the specific Qualcomm APQ chipset model presentAffected if The chipset model is one of: Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8084, Apq8096au, or Aqt1000
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Check the baseband firmware versionAccess the baseband processor firmware information through manufacturer diagnostic tools (such as QPST for Qualcomm), AT commands, or system logs that report baseband versionAffected if The device runs any baseband firmware version on the affected chipsets listed (all versions of the listed chipsets are vulnerable)
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Determine if ROHC processing is enabledInspect cellular network configuration or baseband settings for ROHC (Robust Header Compression) protocol handling; check if the device processes cellular packets using ROHC decompressionAffected if ROHC header compression processing is active in the cellular data path on the affected chipset
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Inspect cellular packet handling configurationReview baseband or application processor configuration files related to cellular packet processing, specifically looking for padding handling in ROHC or cellular header decompression settingsAffected if The device processes ROHC headers with configurable padding on an unpatched firmware version
The device is affected if it uses any of the listed Qualcomm chipset models (Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8084, Apq8096au, Aqt1000) and processes cellular traffic with ROHC compression enabled, since all firmware versions of these chipsets contain the 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 updates from Qualcomm and device manufacturers. This is a firmware-level vulnerability requiring patches from chipset vendors and subsequent deployment through device OEM update mechanisms.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11166 — 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-2020-11166 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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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.
- 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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