CVE-2021-36995
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 · uneditedThere is an Unauthorized file access vulnerability in Huawei Smartphone.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability by modifying soft links may tamper with the files restored from backups.
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 confidenceThis vulnerability in Huawei smartphones allows unauthorized file access through soft link manipulation during the backup restoration process. An attacker could modify symbolic links to tamper with files being restored from backups, potentially overwriting or corrupting system files.
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= 10.1.1= 11.0.0= 3.1.1= 4.0.0CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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 your EMUI or Magic UI versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Version on your Huawei device. Alternatively, dial *#*#2846579#*#* to access the engineering menu and view the SW version information.Affected if The installed version is exactly 10.1.1 or 11.0.0 for EMUI, or exactly 3.1.1 or 4.0.0 for Magic UI.
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Identify if backup restoration was performedReview your device logs or check recently restored backup files in your device storage or cloud backup history.Affected if A backup from an untrusted or third-party source was restored to the device.
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Inspect for modified system filesUse a file manager with root access or ADB shell to compare critical system files (such as /system, /vendor partitions) against known good hashes or baseline snapshots.Affected if System files show unexpected modifications or ownership changes that were not initiated by official system updates.
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Look for suspicious symbolic linksSearch the backup restoration directories and common staging areas (such as /data/local/tmp or the backup cache folder) for symbolic links pointing to sensitive system paths.Affected if Symbolic links exist that redirect restore paths to system directories like /system or /data.
You are affected if your device runs EMUI 10.1.1, 11.0.0, Magic UI 3.1.1, or 4.0.0 and you have restored a backup from an untrusted source, with evidence of unexpected system file changes or symlink manipulation present.
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-provided security patches from Huawei. Until a patch is available, avoid restoring backups from untrusted sources and monitor for unusual file system activity.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-36995 — 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-2021-36995 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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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.
- 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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