CVE-2023-20687
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 display drm, there is a possible double 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: ALPS07570772; Issue ID: ALPS07570772.
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 race condition in the display DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) subsystem allows a double-free vulnerability where memory is freed twice, leading to memory corruption that can be exploited for local privilege escalation. The vulnerability requires System-level privileges to exploit and needs no user interaction.
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= 12.0= 13.0CVSS 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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Check Android versionRun 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android versionAffected if Version is exactly 12.0 or 13.0 (not 12L, 14, or other variants)
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Verify display DRM driver is activeCheck /sys/class/drm or run 'lsmod | grep -i drm' to confirm DRM subsystem is loadedAffected if DRM module is loaded and actively driving the display (standard on Android with GPU)
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Check kernel version for patch statusRun 'cat /proc/version' or 'uname -a' to obtain kernel version stringAffected if Kernel version predates the ALPS07570772 patch (version string lacks the fix or is older than patch date)
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Confirm system privileges are in useCheck if running processes include those with System UID (uid 1000) via 'ps -A | grep -E "system_server|surfaceflinger"'Affected if System-level processes are running (required for exploit prerequisites, though the vulnerability itself exists in kernel)
You are affected if running Android 12.0 or 13.0 with an unpatched kernel that contains the vulnerable display DRM driver, and the system has System-level processes active.
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 patch ALPS07570772 to the affected kernel/display driver. Prioritize patching on systems where untrusted local users have access, as the exploit enables privilege escalation from System privileges.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,640.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-20687 — 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-2023-20687 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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