EmuiOperating system · Huawei

CVE-2023-39386

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-08-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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 input parameters being not strictly verified in the PMS module. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause newly installed apps to fail to restart.

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 is an input validation vulnerability in a PMS (Package Management System) module where input parameters are not strictly verified. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to cause newly installed applications to fail to restart, likely by providing malformed or unexpected input during the installation process that corrupts the app's startup configuration.

MitigationImplement strict input validation and sanitization for all parameters processed by the PMS module during app installation and restart operations.

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:= 3.0.0= 3.1.0

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

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

  1. Identify the installed OS version
    Check the device settings or system information to determine if the OS is Huawei Emui or Harmonyos, and note the exact version number
    Affected if The OS is Emui 12.0.0, Emui 13.0.0, Harmonyos 3.0.0, or Harmonyos 3.1.0
  2. Compare your version to affected ranges
    Verify the exact version matches one of the affected versions: Emui = 12.0.0 or = 13.0.0; Harmonyos = 3.0.0 or = 3.1.0
    Affected if The installed version exactly matches one of the four listed versions (not a range, but the specific versions)
  3. Identify PMS module usage
    Check if the Package Management System module is actively used for app installations - this is typically a core system component on these OS versions
    Affected if The PMS module processes installation requests (this is default behavior on affected versions)
  4. Monitor for app restart failures
    After installing a new application, observe whether it fails to restart or shows errors in startup configuration - check system logs for installation-related errors
    Affected if Newly installed applications fail to restart or show corrupted startup configuration after installation

You are affected if your device runs Emui 12.0.0, Emui 13.0.0, Harmonyos 3.0.0, or Harmonyos 3.1.0 and you observe newly installed apps failing to restart due to corrupted startup configuration.

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

Implement strict input validation and sanitization for all parameters processed by the PMS module during app installation and restart operations.

Fix this in Emui Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-39386 — 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-2023-39386 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data