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CVE-2016-6691: Google Android: Denial of service

CVE-2016-6691 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and affects Google Android. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

service/jni/com_android_server_wifi_Gbk2Utf.cpp in the Qualcomm Wi-Fi gbk2utf module in Android before 2016-10-05 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (framework crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via an access point that has a malformed SSID with GBK encoding, aka Qualcomm internal bug CR 978452.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.8: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

• Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
• Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
• Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
• User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
• Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
• Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
• Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-172: Improper Encoding or Decoding of Data

The product does not properly encode or decode data, resulting in unexpected values that are not equivalent to the original data.

Affected products

• Google Android: up to and including 7.0

References

• https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la//platform/frameworks/opt/net/wifi/commit/?id=343f123c396b2a97fc7cce396cd5d99365cb9131
• http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-10-01.html
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93330