CVE-2017-8210 in Honor 5C
Summary
by MITRE
The driver of honor 5C,honor 6x Huawei smart phones with software of versions earlier than NEM-AL10C00B356, versions earlier than Berlin-L21HNC432B360 have a buffer overflow vulnerability due to the lack of parameter validation. An attacker tricks a user into installing a malicious APP which has the root privilege of the Android system, the APP can send a specific parameter to the driver of the smart phone, causing a system reboot or arbitrary code execution.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/16/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-8210 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the kernel drivers of Huawei Honor 5C and Honor 6X smartphones. This weakness exists specifically in device firmware versions prior to NEM-AL10C00B356 and Berlin-L21HNC432B360, creating a persistent security risk that affects millions of mobile devices. The vulnerability stems from inadequate parameter validation within the driver component responsible for managing hardware interactions, particularly in the context of Android system operations. This flaw demonstrates the inherent complexity of mobile device security where kernel-level components must maintain strict input validation to prevent exploitation by malicious applications.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a classic buffer overflow condition that occurs when the driver processes user-supplied parameters without proper bounds checking. When a malicious application with root privileges executes, it can craft specific parameter inputs that exceed the allocated buffer space within the driver's memory management structure. This overflow condition can overwrite adjacent memory locations, potentially corrupting critical system data structures or executing arbitrary code within the kernel context. The vulnerability operates at the intersection of mobile operating system security and hardware driver integrity, where the Android system's permission model becomes compromised when root-level applications can manipulate kernel drivers directly.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-8210 extends beyond simple system instability, as it enables both system reboot attacks and full arbitrary code execution capabilities. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can force device reboots at will, potentially disrupting critical communications or services, or more dangerously execute malicious code with kernel-level privileges. This privilege escalation capability allows the malicious application to bypass Android's standard security boundaries and gain complete control over the device's hardware and software environment. The vulnerability creates a persistent backdoor that remains active until the device is updated with patched firmware, making it particularly dangerous for users who do not regularly update their mobile devices.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK framework techniques including privilege escalation and defense evasion, where the malicious application leverages the driver flaw to maintain persistent access to the device. From a CWE perspective, this represents a classic implementation of CWE-121, heap-based buffer overflow, and CWE-125, out-of-bounds read, as the driver fails to validate input parameters before processing them. The vulnerability also demonstrates the broader security challenge of mobile device ecosystems where hardware drivers often lack the same security rigor as traditional software applications, creating attack surfaces that can be exploited through carefully crafted malicious applications. Organizations and users should prioritize immediate firmware updates to address this vulnerability, as the risk of exploitation remains high given the widespread deployment of affected Huawei devices in enterprise and consumer environments.