EmuiOperating system · Huawei

CVE-2023-37242

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-07-06
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Vulnerability of commands from the modem being intercepted in the atcmdserver module. Attackers may exploit this vulnerability to rewrite the non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM), or facilitate the exploitation of other vulnerabilities.

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 vulnerability in the atcmdserver module allows intercepted modem commands to be exploited, enabling attackers to rewrite NVRAM (non-volatile memory). The high CVSS score reflects the critical nature of unauthenticated network-based attackers gaining low-level hardware memory access.

MitigationApply vendor patches for the atcmdserver module when available; implement network segmentation to isolate modem/IoT devices from untrusted networks; monitor for unauthorized NVRAM access attempts.

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
EmuiOperating system
Affected:= 12.0.0= 13.0.0
HarmonyosOperating system
Affected:= 2.0= 3.0.0

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify the atcmdserver module is present and active
    Check system processes or module list for the atcmdserver daemon/service running on the device
    Affected if atcmdserver module is enabled and processing modem commands without proper authentication controls
  2. Confirm the Huawei EMUI version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Version on the device, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.emui' via ADB shell
    Affected if installed EMUI version equals exactly 12.0.0 or 13.0.0
  3. Confirm the Huawei HarmonyOS version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Version on the device, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.harmonyos' via ADB shell
    Affected if installed HarmonyOS version equals exactly 2.0 or 3.0.0
  4. Assess network exposure of the modem interface
    Review network firewall rules and interface bindings to determine if the atcmdserver or modem communication ports are accessible from untrusted network segments
    Affected if modem/atcmdserver interfaces are exposed to non-local, untrusted network paths

Device is affected if it runs EMUI 12.0.0, EMUI 13.0.0, HarmonyOS 2.0, or HarmonyOS 3.0.0 with the atcmdserver module enabled and accessible to network attackers.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor patches for the atcmdserver module when available; implement network segmentation to isolate modem/IoT devices from untrusted networks; monitor for unauthorized NVRAM access attempts.

Fix this in Emui Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-37242 — 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-2023-37242 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
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