CVE-2023-21638
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 · uneditedMemory corruption in Video while calling APIs with different instance ID than the one received in initialization.
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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in Video component where APIs are called with a different instance ID than the one received during initialization. This mismatch likely causes the API to access memory intended for a different video instance, leading to corruption.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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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Identify installed Qualcomm firmware productRun 'lsb_release -a' or check /proc/version, or use 'dmesg | grep -i qualcomm' to identify the specific Qualcomm firmware chip in use (e.g., Fastconnect 6200, Qca6391, etc.)Affected if The detected product matches any of: Aqt1000, Fastconnect 6200, Fastconnect 6800, Fastconnect 6900, Fastconnect 7800, Qca6391, Qca6420, Qca6426 firmware
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Confirm Video component is activeCheck system processes or loaded modules for video-related services using 'ps aux | grep -i video' or check /proc/modules for video driver entriesAffected if Video component or video processing module is loaded or running on the system
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Check for video API instance mismatch errorsReview system logs (dmesg, journalctl, /var/log/messages) for entries containing 'video', 'instance', 'mismatch', or memory corruption indicatorsAffected if Logs contain errors referencing video API calls with mismatched instance IDs or memory corruption in video context
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Monitor for video-related crashesCheck /var/crash or core dump directories for any crashes in video-related binaries or libraries using 'ls -la /var/crash' and 'coredumpctl list'Affected if Any crashes are found related to video component or video driver modules
If the system uses any of the listed Qualcomm firmware products (all versions are affected) and the Video component is actively in use, the environment is likely affected by this vulnerability.
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 dataEnsure APIs are called only with the instance ID returned from initialization; add validation checks before video API operations to verify the instance ID matches the initialized instance.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21638 — 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-2023-21638 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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