CVE-2023-38436
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 vowifiservice, there is a possible missing permission check.This could lead to local information disclosure with no additional execution privileges
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 confidenceIn the vowifiservice component, a missing permission check allows unprivileged local applications to access sensitive information without requiring any additional execution privileges. This local information disclosure vulnerability stems from the service not validating caller permissions before returning potentially sensitive data.
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= 11.0CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 Android versionCheck system settings under 'About Phone' or use 'getprop ro.build.version.release' command to confirm the installed Android versionAffected if The version displayed is exactly 11.0 (Android 11)
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Locate vowifiservice componentSearch system services or use service management tools (such as 'dumpsys' or 'service list') to verify whether the vowifiservice is registered and running on the deviceAffected if The vowifiservice is present and active on the system
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Verify permission enforcement on vowifiserviceUse 'dumpsys [service_name]' or inspect service permission configuration to check whether caller permission validation is enforced before returning sensitive dataAffected if The service returns information to callers without verifying their permissions or privileges
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Test unprivileged accessAttempt to query the vowifiservice from an application without elevated or network-related permissions to determine if sensitive data is accessible without authorizationAffected if An unprivileged application can retrieve sensitive information from the service without being denied
A device is affected if it runs Android 11.0 and the vowifiservice allows unprivileged local applications to access sensitive information without permission validation.
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 dataImplement and enforce proper permission checks in the vowifiservice to verify caller identity and privileges before allowing access to sensitive information. Apply the principle of least privilege.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38436 — 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-2023-38436 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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