AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2021-0424

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-09-27
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
In memory management driver, there is a possible system crash due to a missing bounds check. This could lead to local denial of service with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS05403499; Issue ID: ALPS05393787.

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 missing bounds check in the memory management driver allows a local attacker to cause a system crash (denial of service) without requiring any additional privileges or user interaction. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation when handling memory operations in the driver.

MitigationApply patch ALPS05403499 which adds proper bounds checking to the memory management driver. Until the patch is available, monitor for unexpected system crashes potentially linked to memory driver operations.

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
AndroidOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0

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
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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. Check Android version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone (or About Device) and look at the Android version field. Alternatively, run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' in ADB shell.
    Affected if The version listed is exactly 10.0 or 11.0 (not newer patch levels)
  2. Identify memory management driver presence
    In ADB shell, run 'getprop | grep mem' or check /sys/module/ for memory management related modules (e.g., 'ls /sys/module/' and look for memory, mm, or ion related entries).
    Affected if A memory management driver module is loaded on the device
  3. Review system crash logs for memory driver failures
    Run 'adb logcat -d | grep -i "memory"' or 'adb logcat -d | grep -i "mm"' in a terminal to search for crash logs mentioning memory management driver issues.
    Affected if Recent crash logs show kernel panics or driver faults related to memory management operations
  4. Check for unexpected system crashes
    Review /sys/fs/pstore/ (if available) or run 'adb shell dmesg' to look for kernel oops or panic messages, particularly those mentioning memory management subsystem.
    Affected if Kernel logs show unexplained crashes or memory management driver faults without user-initiated actions

A device is affected if it runs Android 10.0 or 11.0 and has experienced unexplained system crashes or kernel panics that reference the memory management driver.

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

Apply patch ALPS05403499 which adds proper bounds checking to the memory management driver. Until the patch is available, monitor for unexpected system crashes potentially linked to memory driver operations.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,120
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-0424 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-0424 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