CVE-2023-30732 in Smart Phone
Summary
by MITRE • 10/25/2023
Improper access control in system property prior to SMR Oct-2023 Release 1 allows local attacker to get CPU serial number.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/25/2023
This vulnerability represents a critical access control flaw in Android system properties that existed prior to the October 2023 Security Model Release. The issue stems from insufficient authorization checks within the system's property management framework, allowing locally authenticated attackers to bypass normal security boundaries and extract sensitive hardware information. The vulnerability specifically affects the CPU serial number retrieval mechanism, which constitutes a fundamental hardware identifier that could be exploited for device fingerprinting and tracking purposes.
The technical implementation of this flaw resides in the Android system properties service where system-level properties are managed and accessed. When a local process attempts to query certain system properties related to CPU identification, the access control validation mechanism fails to properly verify the requesting process's credentials or privileges. This misconfiguration allows unauthorized local attackers with basic system access to directly query the cpu.serial property without proper authorization checks. The vulnerability falls under the CWE-284 access control weakness category, specifically representing improper access control within a system service.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant security implications for Android devices as the CPU serial number serves as a persistent hardware identifier that can be used for device tracking, forensic analysis, and potential exploitation of other vulnerabilities. Attackers could leverage this information to build device profiles, conduct targeted attacks, or bypass certain device-specific security measures. The local nature of the attack means that any process running with basic user privileges or compromised applications could exploit this weakness, making it particularly concerning for mobile environments where applications often have elevated permissions.
The impact extends beyond simple information disclosure as this hardware identifier can be combined with other fingerprinting techniques to create comprehensive device profiles that persist across reboots and even system updates. Security researchers have noted that such information can be used to track user behavior across different applications and services, potentially enabling sophisticated tracking mechanisms that circumvent traditional privacy protections. This vulnerability also demonstrates the importance of proper privilege separation in system services and highlights the need for comprehensive access control validation throughout the Android security model.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including ensuring all devices are updated to the October 2023 Security Model Release which contains the necessary patches for this vulnerability. System administrators should also conduct thorough security audits to identify any local processes that might be exploiting this weakness and implement monitoring for unauthorized access attempts to system properties. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a privilege escalation technique through system service manipulation, and defenders should monitor for suspicious property access patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, application developers should review their code for any reliance on potentially compromised system properties and implement alternative identification mechanisms that do not expose sensitive hardware information.