CVE-2016-3906 in Android
Summary
by MITRE
An information disclosure vulnerability in Qualcomm components including the GPU driver, power driver, SMSM Point-to-Point driver, and sound driver in Android before 2016-11-05 could enable a local malicious application to access data outside of its permission levels. This issue is rated as Moderate because it first requires compromising a privileged process. Android ID: A-30445973. References: Qualcomm QC-CR#1054344.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/30/2022
This vulnerability represents a significant information disclosure flaw affecting multiple Qualcomm driver components within Android systems prior to the 2016-11-05 security update. The issue manifests in the GPU driver, power driver, SMSM Point-to-Point driver, and sound driver components, creating a pathway for local malicious applications to access data beyond their intended permission boundaries. The vulnerability operates at the kernel level, exploiting design flaws in how these drivers handle memory management and access controls, allowing unauthorized data access through privilege escalation mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and memory protection mechanisms within the Qualcomm driver stack. When a malicious application attempts to access restricted memory regions through these drivers, the system fails to properly enforce access controls, enabling the application to read data that should be protected by kernel-level permissions. This flaw aligns with CWE-200, which describes improper information disclosure vulnerabilities where systems expose sensitive data to unauthorized entities. The vulnerability requires an initial compromise of a privileged process to achieve full exploitation, making it a moderate severity issue that follows the principle of least privilege violations in operating system security models.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it creates potential pathways for broader system compromise and lateral movement within affected Android devices. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to access sensitive system information, user data, or even extract cryptographic keys and credentials stored in protected memory regions. The affected drivers operate at the lowest privilege levels, making them attractive targets for exploitation as they provide direct access to hardware resources and system memory. This vulnerability directly impacts the Android security model by undermining the isolation guarantees between applications and system services, potentially allowing for privilege escalation attacks that could lead to complete device compromise.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate system updates to the patched Android versions released on or after 2016-11-05, which contain the necessary driver modifications to address the memory access control issues. Organizations should also implement runtime monitoring to detect unauthorized access attempts to system drivers and establish baseline security configurations that minimize the attack surface available to local applications. The fix addresses the underlying driver code by implementing proper memory boundary checking and access control validation, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1068 which covers privilege escalation through kernel exploits. Security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to ensure all affected Qualcomm components are properly patched and monitor for any potential exploitation attempts that might leverage similar attack vectors.