CVE-2022-20090
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 · uneditedIn aee driver, there is a possible use after free due to a race condition. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with System execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS06209197; Issue ID: ALPS06209197.
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 confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in the aee driver caused by a race condition. An attacker with existing System-level execution privileges can exploit a race window between memory allocation and deallocation to achieve privilege escalation to higher privileges. No user interaction is required.
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= 11.0= 12.0CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/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 Android version is 11.0 or 12.0Run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android versionAffected if The version shows exactly 11.0 or 12.0 (not 10, 13, or other versions)
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Verify aee driver exists on the deviceCheck for /dev/aed, /dev/aee, or /dev/exception/debuglog; or run 'ls -la /dev/*ee*'Affected if The aee device node exists in /dev, indicating the aee driver is present
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Check if aee kernel module is loadedRun 'cat /proc/modules | grep -i aee' or check 'lsmod | grep -i aee' if modules are supportedAffected if The aee module is loaded into kernel memory
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Identify device manufacturer and SoC typeRun 'getprop ro.product.model' and 'getprop ro.board.platform'; the aee driver is primarily used on MediaTek-based devicesAffected if The device uses a MediaTek chipset and has the aee driver present
A device is affected if it runs Android 11.0 or 12.0 AND has the aee driver present (MediaTek devices are the primary target). Exploitation also requires the attacker to already have System-level execution privileges.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply vendor patch ALPS06209197. Since exploitation requires System-level access, prioritize patching systems where untrusted local users have any shell access.
Android security patch level May 2022 or later from your OEM (contains MediaTek patch ALPS06209197)
- Contact your device manufacturer (OEM) to confirm the device has the latest Android security patch level that includes MediaTek patch ALPS06209197
- Verify through device settings that the Android security patch level is May 2022 or later, as this is when this vulnerability was addressed
- If the device is still on Android 11.0 or 12.0 and has not received the patch, request the OEM security update or consider upgrading to a newer Android version if available
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-20090 — 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-2022-20090 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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