CVE-2021-36999
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 a Buffer overflow vulnerability in Huawei Smartphone.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability by sending malicious images and inducing users to open the images may cause remote code execution.
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 buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Huawei smartphone image processing functionality. Attackers can trigger the vulnerability by sending specially crafted malicious images that, when opened by the user, can lead to remote code execution.
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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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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Identify device manufacturerCheck if the device is a Huawei smartphone by reviewing the device settings under 'About Phone' or checking the physical device brandingAffected if The device is not a Huawei smartphone, then it is not affected by this CVE
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Check EMUI versionOn Huawei devices, go to Settings > About Phone > Version. Locate the EMUI version number listedAffected if The EMUI version is exactly 10.1.1 or exactly 11.0.0, indicating the device is running an affected version
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Check Magic UI versionOn Huawei devices, go to Settings > About Phone > Version. Locate the Magic UI version number listed. This applies to devices such as Honor phones that run Magic UIAffected if The Magic UI version is exactly 3.1.1 or exactly 4.0.0, indicating the device is running an affected version
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Verify image viewer capabilityConfirm the device has an active image gallery or image viewer application. Check if default apps for image viewing are enabled in Settings > AppsAffected if The image viewer functionality is disabled or unavailable, which would prevent the vulnerability from being triggered
A user is affected if they own a Huawei device running EMUI 10.1.1, EMUI 11.0.0, Magic UI 3.1.1, or Magic UI 4.0.0, and they can open received image files using the native image processing functionality.
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 dataUsers should avoid opening images from untrusted sources. Organizations should monitor for Huawei security patches and apply them promptly once available.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 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-2021-36999 — 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-2021-36999 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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