Overview
Certain Samsung and HTC android phones store user interactions to the dmesg buffer which could allow a a malicious application to derive certain user-inputted information from the phone.
Description
The Android operating system on certain Samsung and HTC mobile phones store certain user interactions to the dmesg buffer. A user with access to an affected phone and the ability to execute the dmesg application on the phone may be able to view the dmesg buffer without root or administrator rights. The coordinates can be used to read pin numbers, text messages, telephone numbers and other information from the phone. |
Impact
It is possible for an attacker with the ability to run dmesg, such as with a malicious application to derive certain user-input from the phone, such as pin numbers, text messages, telephone numbers, and other information from the phone. |
Solution
Both Samsung and HTC have reported that security updates have been released to affected handsets. Users are advised to update their phone's to the latest operating system ROM version. |
Vendor Information
It has been reported that the following devices are affected. Note that additional devices maybe affected.
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CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | 4.4 | AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:N/A:N |
| Temporal | 3.4 | E:POC/RL:OF/RC:C |
| Environmental | 4.1 | CDP:L/TD:H/CR:ND/IR:ND/AR:ND |
References
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Glenn ten Cate for reporting this vulnerability.
This document was written by Michael Orlando.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | CVE-2012-2980 |
| Date Public: | 2012-08-16 |
| Date First Published: | 2012-08-16 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2012-08-24 12:33 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 28 |