CVE-2020-11251
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 · uneditedOut-of-bounds read vulnerability while accessing DTMF payload due to lack of check of buffer length before copying 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 · moderate confidenceOut-of-bounds read vulnerability in DTMF payload processing across multiple Qualcomm Snapdragon chip families. The flaw stems from missing buffer length validation before memory copy operations, allowing an attacker to read beyond buffer boundaries and potentially expose 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 chip model in your deviceCheck the device specifications, system-on-chip (SoC) information, or boot logs for the part number. On Android, this is often visible in Settings > About Phone > Baseband or in /proc/cpuinfo. On embedded devices, check the BOM (Bill of Materials) or hardware documentation.Affected if The chip model matches Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8096au, Aqt1000, or Ar6003
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Confirm the chip is a Snapdragon variant with DTMF capabilityVerify the identified chip is part of the Snapdragon product line. DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) is a standard telephony feature used in voice calls, so it is typically enabled on mobile communication chips.Affected if The chip is a Snapdragon-based SoC and uses DTMF for telephony or voice services
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Check if the device firmware can be inspected for patch levelAccess the baseband or modem firmware version information. On Android, this is typically found in Settings > About Phone > Baseband version, or via AT commands (e.g., ATI, AT+GMR) if the modem is accessible. Check /vendor or /firmware partitions for modem firmware files.Affected if You can confirm the firmware version; however, note that all versions of the listed chips are affected, so any unpatched firmware version means the device is vulnerable
If your device uses any of the affected Qualcomm Snapdragon part numbers (Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8053, Apq8096au, Aqt1000, or Ar6003) and has not received vendor firmware patches, it is likely affected by this out-of-bounds read vulnerability in DTMF processing.
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 Qualcomm vendor firmware patches to affected devices; contact device manufacturers for availability of security updates for Snapdragon-based products.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11251 — 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-2020-11251 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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