dbcve.org
Honor 20 Pro FirmwareOperating system · Huawei

CVE-2020-9223

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.1.0.168 / 10.1.0.225 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
There is a denial of service vulnerability in some Huawei smartphones. Due to the improper processing of received abnormal messages, remote attackers may exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service (DoS) on the specific module.

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

A denial of service vulnerability exists in certain Huawei smartphones where the system improperly processes received abnormal messages, allowing remote attackers to trigger a DoS condition on a specific module through specially crafted messages.

MitigationApply available firmware updates from Huawei for affected smartphone models. Until patches are available, consider disabling message processing for untrusted sources or implementing network-level filtering for abnormal message traffic.

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
Honor 20 Pro FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 10.1.0.230\(c432e9r5p1\)< 10.1.0.231\(c10e3r3p2\)< 10.1.0.231\(c185e3r5p1\)< 10.1.0.231\(c636e3r3p1\)
Princeton Al10d FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 10.1.0.168\(c00e166r4p11\)
Yale L21a FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 10.1.0.230\(c432e9r5p1\)< 10.1.0.231\(c10e3r3p2\)< 10.1.0.231\(c185e2r2p1\)< 10.1.0.231\(c636e3r3p1\)
Yale L61a FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 10.1.0.225\(c432e3r1p2\)< 10.1.0.226\(c10e3r1p1\)

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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

  1. Identify your smartphone model
    Go to Settings > About Phone and verify the exact model name (Honor 20 Pro, Princeton Al10d, Yale L21a, or Yale L61a)
    Affected if The device is not one of these four models
  2. Check your firmware build number
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Version and record the full build number displayed (e.g., 10.1.0.230(c432e9r5p1))
    Affected if No build number is visible or accessible
  3. Compare Honor 20 Pro firmware against affected versions
    If model is Honor 20 Pro, compare your build against: < 10.1.0.230(c432e9r5p1), < 10.1.0.231(c10e3r3p2), < 10.1.0.231(c185e3r5p1), < 10.1.0.231(c636e3r3p1)
    Affected if Your build number is lower than any of these thresholds
  4. Compare Princeton Al10d firmware against affected versions
    If model is Princeton Al10d, compare your build against: < 10.1.0.168(c00e166r4p11)
    Affected if Your build number is lower than 10.1.0.168(c00e166r4p11)
  5. Compare Yale L21a firmware against affected versions
    If model is Yale L21a, compare your build against: < 10.1.0.230(c432e9r5p1), < 10.1.0.231(c10e3r3p2), < 10.1.0.231(c185e2r2p1), < 10.1.0.231(c636e3r3p1)
    Affected if Your build number is lower than any of these thresholds
  6. Compare Yale L61a firmware against affected versions
    If model is Yale L61a, compare your build against: < 10.1.0.225(c432e3r1p2), < 10.1.0.226(c10e3r1p1)
    Affected if Your build number is lower than either of these thresholds

You are affected if your device model is Honor 20 Pro, Princeton Al10d, Yale L21a, or Yale L61a and your firmware build number falls below the specified thresholds for your model.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 10.1.0.168 / 10.1.0.225 / 10.1.0.226 or later
Fixed in 10.1.0.16810.1.0.22510.1.0.226
Interim mitigation

Apply available firmware updates from Huawei for affected smartphone models. Until patches are available, consider disabling message processing for untrusted sources or implementing network-level filtering for abnormal message traffic.

Fix this in Honor 20 Pro Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-9223 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2020-9223 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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