CVE-2023-20964

Privilege escalation via unchecked media receiver ownership

Published Mar 24, 2023 · Updated Feb 25, 2025

Confused-deputy handling in Android 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to cause denial of service through media-button event routing. MediaSessionRecord accepted a MediaButtonReceiver ComponentName outside the caller's package and rebroadcast media-button Intents to it. A low-privilege local app can trigger this routing without user interaction, enabling privileged code execution or service interruption.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability0.12%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
Coverage for this vulnerability

See if you're affected

Explore vulnerability checks for your environment with Hinoki.

Book a demo

Summary

What happened

Confused-deputy handling in Android 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to cause denial of service through media-button event routing. MediaSessionRecord accepted a MediaButtonReceiver ComponentName outside the caller's package and rebroadcast media-button Intents to it. A low-privilege local app can trigger this routing without user interaction, enabling privileged code execution or service interruption.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-20964
Published
Mar 24, 2023
Updated
Feb 25, 2025
Vendor
Google Cloud
Product
Android
Classifications
CWE-610, T1404
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 24, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 25, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=Android-12 Android-12L Android-13

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Google Cloud · Androidversion=Android-12 Android-12L Android-13

Published CVSS scores

7.8NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-610Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere
T1404Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

See the directory against your own environment.

Your stack

Check the software in your environment

Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.

Book a demo