CVE-2023-38448
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 denial of service 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 confidenceA missing permission check in the vowifiservice component allows a local attacker to cause denial of service without requiring additional execution privileges. This indicates an authorization bypass where the service fails to validate caller permissions before performing privileged operations, enabling any local process to trigger a DoS condition.
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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 versionRun 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android version. The vulnerability affects only Android 11.0 (exact version).Affected if Version is exactly 11.0 (the affected version)
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Verify vowifiservice existsCheck for the vowifiservice component in the system. On Android, examine /system/etc/vintf/manifest.xml or run 'dumpsys -l' to list all services. The service name would typically appear as 'vowifiservice' or similar.Affected if vowifiservice component is present on the device
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Check service permission configurationRun 'dumpsys vowifiservice' or 'service list' to examine if the service is exposed. Check if the service allows interaction from any local process without requiring android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS or similar privileged permissions.Affected if Service accepts requests from any local app/process without permission validation
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Test service accessibilityFrom a non-privileged application context, attempt to bind to or call the vowifiservice using standard service binding mechanisms. Observe if the call succeeds without a security exception.Affected if Non-privileged local processes can successfully invoke vowifiservice operations
User is affected if running Android 11.0 and vowifiservice is present and accessible to unprivileged local processes without proper 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 proper permission checks in vowifiservice to validate caller authorization before executing sensitive operations. Apply the principle of least privilege by ensuring only authorized system components can interact with the service.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 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 $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38448 — 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-2023-38448 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
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