HarmonyosOperating system · Huawei

CVE-2021-22484

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-12-28
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Some Huawei wearables have a vulnerability of not verifying the actual data size when reading data. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause a server out of memory (OOM).

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

This vulnerability in Huawei wearables stems from the device or companion software failing to validate the actual size of data before reading it into memory buffers. When oversized or malformed data is processed, it can exhaust server-side memory resources, causing an out-of-memory condition. The lack of bounds checking represents a classic resource exhaustion and potential buffer overflow vulnerability in the data handling logic.

MitigationImplement strict data size validation and bounds checking on both client and server sides before any read or memory allocation operations. Limit maximum acceptable data lengths and implement proper error handling for oversized data.

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
HarmonyosOperating system
Affected:= 2.0.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Identify HarmonyOS wearable devices in your environment
    Locate all Huawei wearable devices (smartwatches, fitness trackers) connected to your network or managed devices. Check device inventories or network scans for Huawei wearable product names.
    Affected if Any Huawei wearable device is present in the environment
  2. Verify HarmonyOS version on the wearable device
    Access the device settings menu, typically under Settings > About Phone/About Device > Version, or use the companion smartphone app (Huawei Health) to check the installed HarmonyOS version.
    Affected if The device reports HarmonyOS version exactly 2.0.0
  3. Confirm companion software is in use
    Check if Huawei Health app or other Huawei companion software is installed on paired smartphones that manage the wearable device.
    Affected if Companion software is actively used to sync or manage the wearable device
  4. Check if data sync features are enabled
    Review the wearable and companion app settings to confirm data synchronization features (such as health data sync, firmware updates, or notification handling) are enabled.
    Affected if Data sync or communication features between device and companion software are active

You are affected if you have any Huawei wearable device running exactly HarmonyOS 2.0.0 with active companion software and data sync capabilities enabled.

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

Implement strict data size validation and bounds checking on both client and server sides before any read or memory allocation operations. Limit maximum acceptable data lengths and implement proper error handling for oversized data.

Fix this in Harmonyos Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
42.0 hours of engineering $7,360
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2021-22484 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
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