Recently Patched Android Vulnerability Exploited in Attacks

Google has warned Android users that a recently patched vulnerability has been exploited in attacks.

The vulnerability in question, tracked as CVE-2020-11261, was patched by Google with the Android security updates released in January 2021.

The vulnerability is a high-severity improper input validation issue affecting a display/graphics component from Qualcomm. The flaw was reported to Qualcomm through Google in July 2020 and it affects a long list of chipsets.

In Qualcomm’s advisory, CVE-2020-11261 is described as a “memory corruption due to improper check to return error when user application requests memory allocation of a huge size.”

The advisory also reveals that the access vector for the security hole is “local,” which suggests it could be a privilege escalation vulnerability.

Google Project Zero researcher Ben Hawkes posted a tweet on Monday to point out that the Android security bulletin for January 2021 has been updated to inform users that the vulnerability has apparently been exploited.

“There are indications that CVE-2020-11261 may be under limited, targeted exploitation,” reads a note added to the Android advisory.

Google has credited GitHub security researcher Man Yue Mo for reporting the vulnerability. The researcher earned significant bug bounties from Google over the past few years for potentially serious Chrome bugs.

Google last week said a sophisticated threat actor had used at least 11 zero-day vulnerabilities as part of a mass spying campaign. The APT group had leveraged watering hole attacks to deliver malware to Windows, Android and iOS devices. It’s unclear if CVE-2020-11261 has been exploited by this group.

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