CVE-2020-11216
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 · uneditedBuffer over read can happen in video driver when playing clip with atomsize having value UINT32_MAX in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial 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 · moderate confidenceA buffer over-read vulnerability exists in the Qualcomm Snapdragon video driver. When processing a video clip where the 'atomsize' field is set to UINT32_MAX (0xFFFFFFFF, the maximum 32-bit unsigned integer value), the driver attempts to read an excessively large buffer size, causing an out-of-bounds memory read. This can expose sensitive kernel memory contents or cause a system crash.
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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 chipset modelCheck /proc/cpuinfo, /sys/devices/soc0/soc_id, or use 'cat /proc/device-tree/model' on Android/embedded Linux devices to determine the exact SoC model numberAffected if The chipset matches any of these: Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8064au, Aqt1000, or Apq8096au
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Verify the video driver is loadedCheck for video driver modules using 'lsmod | grep -i video' or check /sys/module/ for video-related Qualcomm driver entries on Linux-based embedded devicesAffected if A Qualcomm video driver module is currently loaded or present in the kernel module directory
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Confirm driver is processing videoCheck for active video playback processes using 'ps | grep -i media' or monitor /dev/video* device nodes to see if the video driver is actively handling media streamsAffected if Video processes are actively using the Qualcomm video driver to process media clips
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Check kernel logs for driver errorsReview dmesg or journalctl logs for any video driver warnings, particularly those mentioning buffer over-read, memory access errors, or atomsize field parsingAffected if Kernel logs show video driver errors related to buffer handling or memory access during video processing
You are affected if your device uses one of the listed Qualcomm chipsets and has the Snapdragon video driver active, as the vulnerability triggers when processing video with an atomsize field set to 0xFFFFFFFF
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 security firmware/driver updates from device manufacturers that incorporate Qualcomm's patch for this vulnerability. For affected IoT and embedded devices, coordinate with the device OEM for firmware updates. Users should ensure their devices receive regular security patches.
- Consultation12.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing24.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11216 — 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-2020-11216 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
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