CVE-2016-3834 in Android
Summary
by MITRE
The camera APIs in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, and 6.x before 2016-08-01 allow attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and obtain sensitive information about ANW buffer addresses via a crafted application, aka internal bug 28466701.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/12/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-3834 represents a critical security flaw in Android's camera application programming interfaces that affected multiple versions of the operating system from 2014 through 2016. This weakness resides in the Android framework's handling of camera buffer management and access controls, specifically within the ANW (Android Native Window) buffer address exposure mechanisms. The vulnerability allows malicious applications to bypass intended access restrictions and obtain sensitive information about buffer addresses, which constitutes a significant compromise of the system's memory protection mechanisms.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from improper validation and access control enforcement within the camera APIs. When applications attempt to access camera buffers through the ANW interface, the system fails to properly verify the privileges and intentions of the requesting application. This flaw enables attackers to craft malicious applications that can traverse the normal access control boundaries and extract memory addresses of camera buffer allocations. The vulnerability specifically affects the buffer address exposure mechanisms that should normally be restricted to system-level components and authorized applications only.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as the exposure of ANW buffer addresses provides attackers with crucial information for subsequent exploitation attempts. Memory address exposure can enable advanced attack techniques such as memory corruption exploits, return-oriented programming attacks, and other sophisticated payload delivery mechanisms. The vulnerability affects all Android versions from 4.x through 6.x, representing a broad attack surface that would have impacted millions of devices globally. The exposure of buffer addresses essentially provides attackers with a roadmap for targeting specific memory locations that could be leveraged for privilege escalation or arbitrary code execution.
Security researchers have categorized this vulnerability under CWE-200 (Information Exposure) and it aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including T1059 (Command and Scripting Interpreter) and T1068 (Local Privilege Escalation). The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper input validation and access control enforcement in mobile operating systems. Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of affected Android versions, as the exposure of buffer addresses creates a foundation for more serious attacks that could compromise device integrity and user privacy. The vulnerability also highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of system-level APIs and the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches across mobile platforms.