AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2023-42646

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
In Ifaa service, there is a possible missing permission check. This could lead to local information disclosure with no additional execution privileges needed

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 Ifaa (Internet Financial Authentication Architecture) service lacks a proper permission check, allowing unprivileged local applications to access sensitive information without any authentication. The CVSS vector indicates local attack vector with no privileges required, resulting in low-confidentiality information disclosure.

MitigationImplement and enforce proper permission checks in the Ifaa service to validate caller identity before allowing access to sensitive data. Use Android's standard permission enforcement mechanisms (e.g., signature or signature|system permission levels) for sensitive 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
AndroidOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0= 12.0= 13.0

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
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 checks

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

  1. Check Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shell
    Affected if Version is 10, 11, 12, or 13 (exact version matching the affected ranges listed)
  2. Identify Ifaa service presence
    Run 'dumpsys | grep -i ifaa' or 'ps -A | grep -i ifaa' via ADB shell to check if the Ifaa service process is running
    Affected if Ifaa service process is running on the device
  3. Check Ifaa service permission configuration
    Run 'dumpsys package com.android.ifaa' via ADB shell to examine the manifest and permissions declared by the Ifaa package
    Affected if Service declares weak or missing permission protection (e.g., dangerous or normal level instead of signature/system) for sensitive operations
  4. Verify unprivileged app access
    Attempt to query the Ifaa service from a non-privileged app using 'dumpsys activity service IfaaService' or check service bindings from an unprivileged context
    Affected if Unprivileged apps can successfully bind to or invoke the Ifaa service without authentication errors

A device is affected if it runs Android 10-13 AND has the Ifaa service running with insufficient permission controls allowing unprivileged app access.

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 and enforce proper permission checks in the Ifaa service to validate caller identity before allowing access to sensitive data. Use Android's standard permission enforcement mechanisms (e.g., signature or signature|system permission levels) for sensitive operations.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2023-42646 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