CVE-2021-22425
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 · uneditedA component of the HarmonyOS has a Double Free vulnerability. Local attackers may exploit this vulnerability to cause Root Elevating Privileges.
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 confidenceA double free vulnerability exists in a component of Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system. This memory corruption bug allows a local attacker to trigger the improper freeing of memory twice, which can lead to heap corruption and ultimately enable root privilege escalation on the affected device.
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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 the device is running Huawei HarmonyOSCheck the operating system information on the device. On HarmonyOS, you can typically verify this via system settings under 'About Phone' or by running 'getprop ro.build.version.emui' or checking /etc/version note that HarmonyOS may show different identifiers.Affected if The device is confirmed to be running any version of Huawei HarmonyOS as the operating system.
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Identify the specific HarmonyOS versionNavigate to Settings > About Phone on the device, or use the command line to query the system version. Record the exact version number or build number displayed.Affected if The device is running any version of HarmonyOS, as the advisory states all versions are affected.
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Determine if the vulnerable component is presentSince the specific affected component is not publicly detailed in the CVE, identify any proprietary Huawei/HarmonyOS components or services running on the device. Check running processes or system services that handle memory management, privileged operations, or inter-process communication.Affected if The vulnerable component exists and is active on the device. Because all HarmonyOS versions are listed as affected, assume the component is present if HarmonyOS is confirmed.
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Check for signs of heap corruptionReview system logs (typically found in /data/log or /var/log) for crash reports, memory corruption indicators, or double-free related error messages. Use tools like 'dmesg' or logcat if available to search for terms like 'double free', 'heap corruption', or 'memory corruption'.Affected if System logs or crash dumps show evidence of heap corruption, double-free errors, or memory management failures occurring in a HarmonyOS component.
If the device runs Huawei HarmonyOS in any version, it is affected by this vulnerability and should be prioritized for patching given its local privilege escalation impact.
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 the vendor-provided security patch for HarmonyOS as soon as possible. Since this is a local privilege escalation vulnerability, prioritize patching devices with privileged user access or exposed attack surfaces.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-22425 — 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-2021-22425 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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