CVE-2020-11204
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 · uneditedPossible memory corruption and information leakage in sub-system due to lack of check for validity and boundary compliance for parameters that are read from shared MSG RAM 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 confidenceThis vulnerability exists in the MSG RAM (message RAM) sub-system of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips across multiple product lines. Due to missing validity and boundary checks when reading parameters from shared message RAM, an attacker could potentially achieve memory corruption or information leakage. The flaw affects parameters read from shared MSG RAM without proper validation, allowing out-of-bounds access.
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 the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset modelCheck device specifications, /proc/cpuinfo on Android devices, or system information apps to determine the specific APQ chipset in useAffected if The device uses one of the affected APQ variants: Apq8009, Apq8016, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8064au, Apq8084, or Apq8096au
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Confirm firmware versionCheck the firmware or build information in device settings or using system diagnostic tools such as *#06# or manufacturer diagnostic modesAffected if The device runs any firmware version on the affected chipsets (all versions are vulnerable)
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Verify MSG RAM subsystem is presentThis is a fundamental hardware sub-system in affected Snapdragon chips; no user-accessible toggle exists - confirm the device uses Qualcomm Snapdragon architectureAffected if The device utilizes the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSG RAM sub-system for inter-processor communication
A device is affected if it contains any of the listed APQ chipset variants (Apq8009, Apq8016, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8064au, Apq8084, Apq8096au), as all firmware versions of these chips 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-supplied firmware updates for affected Snapdragon devices. Given this is a firmware-level vulnerability in Qualcomm chipsets, users should check with device manufacturers for available patches.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation40.0 h
- Testing24.0 h
- Review / QA16.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $24,448.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11204 — 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-2020-11204 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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