Local privilege escalation via invisible PiP transition
Published Jul 12, 2023 · Updated Nov 6, 2024
Privilege escalation in Android 11, 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to bypass background launch restrictions through Picture-in-Picture. ActivityRecord.updatePictureInPictureMode accepts a Picture-in-Picture transition from an activity with no visible window instead of removing it. A malicious app needs local execution but no additional privileges or user interaction; the resulting window remains in a non-interactable limbo state.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Android 11, 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to bypass background launch restrictions through Picture-in-Picture. ActivityRecord.updatePictureInPictureMode accepts a Picture-in-Picture transition from an activity with no visible window instead of removing it. A malicious app needs local execution but no additional privileges or user interaction; the resulting window remains in a non-interactable limbo state.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-21145
- Published
- Jul 12, 2023
- Updated
- Nov 6, 2024
- Vendor
- Product
- Android
- Classifications
- CWE-326, T1626
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 12, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 6, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=11
- Affected versionversion=12
- Affected versionversion=12L
- Affected versionversion=13
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Android Security Test Suite CVE-2023-21145 test applicationproof of concept · demonstrated
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
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