CVE-2023-21459
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 · uneditedUse after free vulnerability in decon driver prior to SMR Mar-2023 Release 1 allows attackers to cause memory access fault.
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 (UAF) vulnerability in Samsung's decon display driver allows attackers to cause memory access faults by freeing memory while still maintaining a pointer to it, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to SMR March 2023 Release 1.
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= 12.0= 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADBAffected if Version shows 11.0, 12.0, or 13.0
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Check Samsung SMR versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Software information > Build number, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.smr' via ADB to retrieve the Samsung Maintenance Release versionAffected if SMR version is missing or shows a date earlier than March 2023 (e.g., SMR-Feb-2023 or older)
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Confirm decon driver is in useRun 'getprop ro.hardware' via ADB to check if the device uses Samsung hardware, or check /proc/version for kernel version information on Samsung devicesAffected if Device is Samsung hardware running the affected Android versions and outdated SMR
Device is affected if running Samsung Android 11.0, 12.0, or 13.0 with an SMR version earlier than the March 2023 Release 1 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 · scopedApply Samsung's SMR March 2023 Release 1 or later security update to patch the decon driver vulnerability.
SMR Mar-2023 Release 1 or later
- Identify your Samsung device model number
- Navigate to Settings > Software Update on the device
- Check for and download the SMR Mar-2023 Release 1 security update or later
- Install the security update and restart the device
- Verify the update was applied by checking Settings > About Phone > Software Information to confirm the Samsung security patch level
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation10.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,576.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21459 — 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-2023-21459 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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