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AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2026-20441

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
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 MAE, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege if a malicious actor has already obtained the System privilege. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS10432500; Issue ID: MSV-5803.

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 · high confidence

In MAE (MediaTek Abstraction Engine), a missing bounds check allows an out-of-bounds write vulnerability. An attacker who already has System privilege can exploit this to escalate privileges locally without user interaction.

MitigationApply patch ALPS10432500 to address the missing bounds check in MAE. Since exploitation requires System-level access, ensure strict access controls on accounts with System privileges.

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:= 15.0

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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. Identify Android version
    Check system settings or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' to determine the installed Android version
    Affected if Version is exactly 15.0 (Android 15)
  2. Determine if MediaTek chipset is present
    Run 'getprop ro.mediatek.platform' or check /proc/cpuinfo for MediaTek hardware identifiers
    Affected if Device uses a MediaTek chipset (MAE is MediaTek-specific)
  3. Verify MAE component presence
    Check for the presence of mae daemon or library files such as /vendor/bin/mae_* or libmae.so in the system partition
    Affected if MAE (MediaTek Abstraction Engine) binaries or libraries are present on the device
  4. Confirm current privilege level
    Check the process context using 'ps -A | grep mae' or examine SELinux context with 'ls -laZ' on MAE binaries
    Affected if Process runs with System-level privileges (uid 1000) rather than lower-privilege user context

Affected if running Android 15.0 on a MediaTek-based device with MAE component present and the attacker already has System-level access to exploit the privilege escalation.

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 patch ALPS10432500 to address the missing bounds check in MAE. Since exploitation requires System-level access, ensure strict access controls on accounts with System privileges.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
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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-2026-20441 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