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Mi App StoreApplication · Mi

CVE-2020-14121

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-04-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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 · unedited
A business logic vulnerability exists in Mi App Store. The vulnerability is caused by incomplete permission checks of the products being bypassed, and an attacker can exploit the vulnerability to perform a local silent installation.

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 confidence

This is a business logic vulnerability in Xiaomi's Mi App Store where incomplete permission checks can be bypassed, allowing an attacker to perform local silent app installations without proper authorization. The vulnerability stems from the app store failing to validate whether a user has sufficient permissions before proceeding with app installations.

MitigationImplement comprehensive permission validation logic in Mi App Store to verify user authorization before allowing any app installation operations, ensuring all permission checks cannot be bypassed.

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
Mi App StoreApplication
Affected:= 4.12.2

CVSS 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
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if Mi App Store is installed
    On your Xiaomi device, go to Settings > Apps > Manage Apps and look for Mi App Store or Xiaomi App Store in the installed applications list.
    Affected if Mi App Store is present on the device and is version 4.12.2
  2. Verify the installed version of Mi App Store
    In Settings > Apps > Manage Apps, tap on Mi App Store and view the version information under App Info. Compare the version number to 4.12.2.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 4.12.2
  3. Check app permissions granted to Mi App Store
    In Settings > Apps > Manage Apps > Mi App Store > Permissions, review all granted permissions. Look specifically for permissions that allow installation of apps (like Install Apps, Unknown Sources, or similar permission categories).
    Affected if Mi App Store has permissions enabled that allow it to install applications without user interaction
  4. Check for silent installation capability
    Examine whether Mi App Store has the ability to install apps in the background or silently. This may be visible in the app's settings under features like Auto-install, Background installation, or similar options.
    Affected if Silent or automatic app installation features are enabled in the Mi App Store settings
  5. Check for bypassable permission validation
    Attempt to trigger an app installation through Mi App Store and observe if the app store validates user authorization (such as requiring biometric confirmation, PIN, or other permission verification) before proceeding with installation.
    Affected if The app store proceeds with installations without requiring proper user authorization or permission confirmation

You are affected if Mi App Store version 4.12.2 is installed and the app has permissions or configuration that allow silent app installations without proper user authorization validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement comprehensive permission validation logic in Mi App Store to verify user authorization before allowing any app installation operations, ensuring all permission checks cannot be bypassed.

Fix this in Mi App Store Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-14121 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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