CVE-2021-0899
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 apusys, there is a possible memory corruption due to a use after free. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with System execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS05672107; Issue ID: ALPS05672059.
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 confidenceIn apusys (MediaTek's AI Processing Unit driver), a use-after-free vulnerability exists where memory is accessed after being freed, leading to memory corruption. This can be exploited locally to escalate privileges, though System-level access is required to interact with the apusys driver. No user interaction is required for exploitation.
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= 10.0= 11.0= 12.0CVSS 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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Confirm MediaTek chipset in useCheck /proc/cpuinfo or use 'getprop ro.hardware' to identify the SoC vendor. This vulnerability affects only MediaTek-based devices.Affected if Device does not use a MediaTek chipset - the apusys driver is MediaTek-specific.
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Verify Android version matches affected releasesRun 'getprop ro.build.version.release' to check if Android version is 10, 11, or 12.Affected if Android version is 10, 11, or 12 - these are the affected versions per the CVE.
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Check if apusys driver is presentList /dev or /sys/class for apusys-related device nodes, or check 'lsmod' for apusys-related kernel modules.Affected if The apusys driver is loaded and accessible - exploitation requires interaction with this driver.
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Check kernel patch levelRun 'getprop ro.build.version.security_patch' to see the last security patch date applied.Affected if Security patch level is before the fix date - the patch ALPS05672107 addresses this issue.
A user is affected if their MediaTek Android device runs version 10, 11, or 12, has the apusys driver loaded, and is missing the vendor-specific patch ALPS05672107.
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 patch ALPS05672107 from MediaTek to address the use-after-free in the apusys driver. This is a firmware/driver-level fix that must be delivered through MediaTek's regular Android update channels.
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-0899 — 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-2021-0899 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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