CVE-2016-8395 in Android
Summary
by MITRE
A denial of service vulnerability in the NVIDIA camera driver could enable an attacker to cause a local permanent denial of service, which may require reflashing the operating system to repair the device. This issue is rated as High due to the possibility of local permanent denial of service. Product: Android. Versions: Kernel-3.10. Android ID: A-31403040. References: N-CVE-2016-8395.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/20/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-8395 represents a critical denial of service flaw within the NVIDIA camera driver component of Android systems running kernel version 3.10. This issue manifests as a local permanent denial of service condition that can effectively render the device inoperable, requiring costly and time-consuming recovery procedures including full operating system reflash operations. The vulnerability specifically affects Android devices that utilize NVIDIA's camera driver implementation, creating a significant security risk for mobile platforms that depend on this hardware component for camera functionality and image processing capabilities.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation and memory management within the NVIDIA camera driver module. When processing certain malformed or crafted camera-related data structures, the driver fails to properly handle edge cases or invalid inputs, leading to system instability and potential kernel crashes. This flaw operates at the kernel level within the Android operating system, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by local malicious processes or applications with sufficient privileges to interact with camera subsystems. The vulnerability's classification as High severity indicates that exploitation can result in complete system compromise and permanent service unavailability.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for both end users and enterprise deployments. Mobile devices affected by this issue become permanently unusable for camera functions and potentially other system services that depend on the camera driver. The requirement for full operating system reflashing represents a significant operational overhead that can result in data loss, service disruption, and substantial recovery costs. Organizations deploying Android devices in mission-critical environments face particular risk as this vulnerability could compromise device availability and reliability. The local nature of the exploit means that any application with camera access permissions could potentially trigger the vulnerability, making it accessible to both malicious applications and compromised legitimate software.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which addresses stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a classic example of improper input validation leading to system instability. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.001, which covers system shutdown/reboot attacks, though in this case the impact is permanent rather than temporary. The issue demonstrates how hardware driver components can introduce critical security flaws that extend beyond traditional software vulnerabilities, affecting the fundamental stability and availability of entire computing platforms. Mitigation strategies should include immediate driver updates from NVIDIA, kernel-level patches, and potentially device-specific firmware updates to address the underlying memory management issues. Organizations should also implement strict application permission controls and monitoring for suspicious camera driver activity to prevent exploitation. The vulnerability highlights the importance of comprehensive testing and validation of hardware drivers in mobile operating systems, particularly those that operate at kernel level and have direct hardware access capabilities.