CVE-2023-21389
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 Settings, there is a possible bypass of profile owner restrictions 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 confidenceA missing permission check in the Android Settings application allows bypassing profile owner restrictions, enabling a local attacker to escalate privileges without user interaction. The vulnerability exists because the Settings component does not properly validate permissions before performing privileged operations.
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< 14.0CVSS 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
- 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Android OS versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'adb shell getprop ro.build.version.release'Affected if The version reported is less than 14.0 (e.g., 13.x, 12.x, etc.)
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Verify Settings app versionGo to Settings > Apps > Settings > App info, or run 'adb shell dumpsys package com.android.settings | grep versionName'Affected if The Settings app version cannot be individually verified; Android version check is the primary indicator
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Confirm profile owner or device owner is configuredRun 'adb shell dpm list-active-admins' to check for any active device/profile ownersAffected if A device or profile owner is configured - this makes the bypass relevant as the vulnerability allows circumventing owner restrictions
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Check security patch levelGo to Settings > About Phone > Security patch level, or run 'adb shell getprop ro.build.version.security_patch'Affected if The patch level is earlier than the June 2023 Android security update (the month CVE-2023-21389 was addressed)
A device is affected if it runs Android version 14.0 or lower, particularly when a device or profile owner is configured, and the device has not received the June 2023 or later Android security patch.
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 · scoped14.0
Apply the appropriate Android security patch level (refer to Google Android Security Bulletin for CVE-2023-21389). Organizations should ensure devices receive monthly security updates from device manufacturers.
Android 14.0
- Upgrade the Android device to version 14.0 or later to remediate this vulnerability
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 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 $4,960.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21389 — 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-2023-21389 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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- 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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