CVE-2016-8783 in Honor 6
Summary
by MITRE
Touchscreen drive in Huawei H60 (Honor 6) Versions earlier than H60-L02_6.12.16 and P9 Plus Versions earlier than VIE-AL10BC00B356 has a stack overflow vulnerabilities. An attacker tricks a user into installing a malicious application on the smart phone, and send given parameter to touchscreen drive to crash the system or escalate privilege.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/17/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-8783 represents a critical stack overflow flaw within the touchscreen driver component of Huawei smartphones, specifically affecting the H60 (Honor 6) model and P9 Plus devices. This security weakness resides in the kernel-level touchscreen driver implementation, where insufficient input validation allows malicious applications to exploit memory corruption vulnerabilities through crafted parameters sent to the driver interface. The vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking and buffer management within the device driver code, creating an exploitable condition that can be triggered by unprivileged applications with careful manipulation of touchscreen input parameters.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a malicious application persuades a user to install it on the affected device, then leverages the stack overflow condition to execute arbitrary code within the kernel context. This privilege escalation attack targets the touchscreen driver's communication interface, where user-supplied parameters are processed without adequate sanitization. The stack overflow manifests when the driver receives malformed input data that exceeds allocated buffer boundaries, causing memory corruption that can be manipulated to overwrite critical function pointers or return addresses. This type of vulnerability maps directly to CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068 for privilege escalation through local exploits.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple system instability, as it enables full system compromise through privilege escalation from user-level applications to kernel-level execution. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability gains complete control over the device, potentially enabling data exfiltration, persistent backdoor installation, or further exploitation of other system components. The attack vector requires user interaction for application installation, making it a sophisticated social engineering target that can be delivered through various channels including malicious app stores, phishing campaigns, or compromised legitimate applications. The affected firmware versions indicate this vulnerability was present in specific software builds released prior to security patches, highlighting the importance of timely firmware updates for mobile device security.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate firmware updates from Huawei to address the kernel driver implementation flaws. System administrators and device users should ensure all affected Huawei devices receive the latest security patches, particularly those addressing kernel-level driver vulnerabilities. Mobile security vendors should implement behavioral monitoring for suspicious touchscreen driver interactions and parameter validation anomalies. Network security teams should consider blocking known malicious applications from distribution channels and monitor for indicators of compromise related to this vulnerability. The remediation approach must address both the immediate exploit prevention through firmware updates and long-term security posture improvements including secure coding practices for device drivers and enhanced input validation mechanisms. Organizations should also implement device management policies that enforce automatic security updates and monitor for unauthorized application installations that could potentially exploit similar kernel vulnerabilities.