EmuiOperating system · Huawei

CVE-2021-46786

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-05-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
The audio module has a vulnerability in verifying the parameters passed by the application space.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause out-of-bounds memory access.

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

The audio module fails to properly validate parameters received from application space, allowing malicious or malformed inputs to trigger out-of-bounds memory access. This is a classic input validation vulnerability in the kernel-space audio driver where user-supplied values are used as indices or sizes without bounds checking.

MitigationImplement rigorous parameter validation in the audio module to ensure all application-space inputs are validated against valid bounds before use in memory operations. Apply the principle of least privilege to audio driver parameter handling.

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
EmuiOperating system
Affected:= 10.1.0= 10.1.1= 11.0.0= 11.0.1= 12.0.0
Magic UiOperating system
Affected:= 3.1.0= 3.1.1= 4.0.0
HarmonyosOperating system
Affected:= 2.0

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the installed Huawei OS version
    Check system settings > About Phone > Version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.emui' (Emui), 'getprop ro.build.version.magic' (Magic UI), or 'getprop ro.build.version.huawei' (HarmonyOS) via ADB shell
    Affected if The reported version exactly matches 10.1.0, 10.1.1, 11.0.0, 11.0.1, or 12.0.0 for Emui; 3.1.0, 3.1.1, or 4.0.0 for Magic Ui; or 2.0 for HarmonyOS
  2. Confirm the audio kernel module is present
    Check for audio driver files in /system/lib/modules or /vendor/lib/modules, or run 'lsmod | grep audio' in ADB shell to list loaded audio-related kernel modules
    Affected if Audio kernel module is loaded and the OS version matches the affected list in step 1
  3. Verify audio subsystem is functional
    Test basic audio playback or recording functionality, or check audio service status via 'dumpsys audio' in ADB shell
    Affected if Audio subsystem is active and OS version is in the affected range, indicating the vulnerable code path could be reached

The environment is affected only if the installed OS version exactly matches one of the listed affected versions (Emui 10.1.0-12.0.0, Magic Ui 3.1.0-4.0.0, or HarmonyOS 2.0) and the audio module is present and operational.

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 rigorous parameter validation in the audio module to ensure all application-space inputs are validated against valid bounds before use in memory operations. Apply the principle of least privilege to audio driver parameter handling.

Fix this in Emui Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,720
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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-2021-46786 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
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