CVE-2021-1038
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 UserDetailsActivity of AndroidManifest.xml, there is a possible DoS due to a tapjacking/overlay attack. This could lead to local denial of service with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is needed for exploitation.Product: AndroidVersions: Android-10 Android-11 Android-12 Android-9Android ID: A-183411279
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 confidenceThis is a tapjacking/overlay attack vulnerability in Android's UserDetailsActivity. A malicious application can draw an overlay on top of the activity to intercept or block user touch events, causing local denial of service. The attack requires user interaction (the user must tap on the overlaid element) and no additional execution privileges are needed.
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= 9.0= 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check the Android OS version on the deviceGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'adb shell getprop ro.build.version.release'Affected if The device runs Android 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, or 12.0 (exact versions = 9.0, = 10.0, = 11.0, = 12.0)
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Identify if UserDetailsActivity is present in the target applicationDecompile the APK and inspect AndroidManifest.xml, or use aapt tool: 'aapt dump badging your_app.apk | grep -i userdetailsactivity'Affected if The application contains a UserDetailsActivity component in its manifest
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Verify if filterTouchesWhenObscured is enabled on UserDetailsActivityInspect AndroidManifest.xml for '<activity ... android:filterTouchesWhenObscured="true" ...>' on the UserDetailsActivity entry, or use 'aapt dump xmltree your_app.apk AndroidManifest.xml' to search for the attributeAffected if The attribute is absent or set to false, leaving the activity vulnerable to overlay attacks
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Check for touch event validation in UserDetailsActivity source codeDecompile the APK and review the Java/Kotlin code in UserDetailsActivity.java or .kt for implementation of onTouchEvent or dispatchTouchEvent that checks MotionEvent.FLAG_WINDOW_IS_OBSCUREDAffected if No code exists to detect and reject obscured touches when the window is overlaid
A user is affected if their device runs Android 9-12 and the target application has UserDetailsActivity without android:filterTouchesWhenObscured="true" and without touch event validation logic.
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 dataSet android:filterTouchesWhenObscured="true" on the UserDetailsActivity in AndroidManifest.xml, and/or implement touch event validation in the activity code to detect and reject obscured touches.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1038 — 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-2021-1038 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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