CVE-2021-0457
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 · uneditedIn the FingerTipS touch screen driver, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a heap buffer overflow. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with System execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.Product: AndroidVersions: Android kernelAndroid ID: A-157155375
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 · high confidenceHeap buffer overflow vulnerability in the FingerTipS touch screen driver within the Android kernel. The out-of-bounds write can be exploited locally to escalate privileges to System level without requiring user interaction.
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 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 Android kernel versionRun 'uname -r' or check /proc/version to retrieve the kernel version stringAffected if The kernel version predates the March 2021 security patch level or is running an unpatched kernel build
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Verify the FingerTipS touch driver presenceCheck for the driver module by running 'ls /proc/bus/input/devices' or looking for 'FingerTipS' in /sys/class/input/ or dmesg outputAffected if The FingerTipS driver is loaded and the device has not received the March 2021 Android security update
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Check the Android security patch levelRun 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' or navigate to Settings > About Phone > Android security patch levelAffected if The security patch level is earlier than March 5, 2021 or is not listed as containing the CVE-2021-0457 fix
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Inspect kernel configuration for touch driverCheck /boot/config* or /proc/config.gz (if available) for CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_SILEAD or related FingerTipS driver configurationsAffected if The touch screen driver module is enabled in a kernel older than the patched version
The device is affected if it is running any Android version without the March 2021 kernel security patch and the FingerTipS touch driver is present and active.
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 vendor-supplied Android kernel security patches for CVE-2021-0457. This is a kernel-level vulnerability that requires a firmware/ROM update from the device vendor rather than application-level remediation.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,784.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-0457 — 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-2021-0457 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
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