CVE-2020-12860
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 · uneditedCOVIDSafe through v1.0.17 allows a remote attacker to access phone name and model information because a BLE device can have four roles and COVIDSafe uses all of them. This allows for re-identification of a device, and potentially identification of the owner's name.
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 confidenceCOVIDSafe through v1.0.17 uses all four BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) roles (central, peripheral, observer, and broadcaster), which exposes the phone's Bluetooth device name containing model information. A remote attacker can passively collect these BLE advertisements to perform device fingerprinting and re-identification, potentially correlating the device with its owner's identity.
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 data<= 1.0.17all 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
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
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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Check COVIDSafe app versionNavigate to device Settings > Apps > COVIDSafe, or check the app listing in your device's app store. Note the installed version number.Affected if Installed version is 1.0.17 or earlier (any version up to and including 1.0.17)
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Verify Bluetooth is enabledCheck device Bluetooth settings to confirm Bluetooth Low Energy is turned on. The app requires BLE to be active to perform contact tracing.Affected if Bluetooth is enabled on the device while running the affected app version
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Inspect BLE advertisement packetsUse a BLE scanner application (available for both Android and iOS) or a dedicated BLE sniffer tool to capture BLE advertisements broadcast by the device. Examine the advertised device name field.Affected if BLE advertisements broadcast the device name containing model information (the vulnerability allows fingerprinting through this exposed name)
You are affected if you have COVIDSafe version 1.0.17 or earlier installed with Bluetooth enabled, and your device is broadcasting its name in BLE advertisements.
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 dataUpdate to v1.0.18 or later which restricts BLE role usage and implements device name anonymization. If patching is not possible, consider disabling device name broadcasting in BLE settings.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12860 — 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-2020-12860 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data