AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2023-21341

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-10-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 14.0 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
In Permission Manager, there is a possible way to bypass required permissions due to a missing permission check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.

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 local privilege escalation vulnerability in Android's Permission Manager. The issue stems from a missing permission check that allows an attacker to bypass required permissions without needing any elevated privileges or user interaction. The vulnerability enables a local attacker to potentially gain unauthorized access to protected system functions.

MitigationApply the official Android security patch for CVE-2023-21341, which is included in the May 2023 Android Security Bulletin. Organizations should ensure all affected Android devices receive the latest system updates.

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:< 14.0

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. Verify Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version (or Settings > System > Software Version on some devices)
    Affected if The installed Android version is 13.x or lower (anything less than 14.0)
  2. Confirm device is a Google Android device
    Check that the device runs Google Android OS (not a custom ROM fork) - check Settings > About Phone > Brand/Manufacturer
    Affected if The device runs Google Android and the version is below 14.0
  3. Check security patch level
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level (or Settings > System > Security update)
    Affected if The security patch level is earlier than May 2023, indicating the CVE fix has not been applied

A device is affected if it runs Google Android version 13.x or lower AND has not received the May 2023 Android Security Bulletin patch (security patch level before May 2023)

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 14.0 or later
Fixed in 14.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the official Android security patch for CVE-2023-21341, which is included in the May 2023 Android Security Bulletin. Organizations should ensure all affected Android devices receive the latest system updates.

Recommended fix High confidence

Android 14.0 (or later)

  1. Ensure the device is compatible with Android 14.0 or later
  2. Check for and install any available system updates on the device
  3. Navigate to Settings > System > Software Update (or Settings > About Phone > System Update)
  4. Download and install the Android 14.0 update or later
  5. Verify the Android version after update is 14.0 or higher in Settings > About Phone
Caveat Major Android version upgrades may cause app compatibility issues; ensure critical apps are supported on Android 14 before upgrading

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

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,656.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21341 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-21341 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