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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 9 Oct 2023.
AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2022-22265

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-01-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild 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
An improper check or handling of exceptional conditions in NPU driver prior to SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 allows arbitrary memory write and 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 confidence

This is a driver-level vulnerability in the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) where improper handling of exceptional conditions allows an attacker to write to arbitrary memory locations and achieve code execution. The flaw exists in the NPU driver prior to the SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 update.

MitigationApply the SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 or later security patch which contains the corrected NPU driver with proper exceptional condition 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
AndroidOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0= 11.0= 12.0

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 Android version
    Run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android version
    Affected if The version is 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, or 12.0 (these are the affected versions)
  2. Verify NPU hardware presence
    Check /sys/class/npu or run 'ls /dev/npu*' to see if Neural Processing Unit hardware exists on the device
    Affected if No NPU hardware present means the vulnerability does not apply to this device
  3. Locate NPU driver version
    Check /sys/class/npu/npu0/version or inspect kernel module info via 'modinfo npu' if the NPU is built as a loadable module
    Affected if Unable to determine driver version or version predates the SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 update
  4. Check kernel build date
    Run 'uname -a' or check /proc/version to obtain the kernel build timestamp
    Affected if Kernel build date is before January 2022, indicating the vulnerability patch may not be incorporated
  5. Inspect NPU driver configuration
    Review /sys/class/npu/npu0/caps or check /vendor/etc/npu/ for driver configuration files that indicate NPU subsystem status
    Affected if NPU is enabled and actively running with a pre-update driver

A device is affected if it runs Android 9.0-12.0, contains NPU hardware, and has an NPU driver version or kernel build date predating the SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 update.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the SMR Jan-2022 Release 1 or later security patch which contains the corrected NPU driver with proper exceptional condition handling.

Recommended fix High confidence

SMR Jan-2022 Release 1

  1. Check current Android version and security patch level in Settings > About Phone > Software Information
  2. Navigate to Settings > Software Update and tap 'Download and Install' if an update is available
  3. Ensure device is connected to Wi-Fi and charged during the update process
  4. After update completes, verify security patch level reflects January 2022 or later in Settings > About Phone > Software Information

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Android Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,800
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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-2022-22265 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data