CVE-2016-3861

Description

LibUtils in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, 6.x before 2016-09-01, and 7.0 before 2016-09-01 mishandles conversions between Unicode character encodings with different encoding widths, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow) via a crafted file, aka internal bug 29250543.

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

Debian

Security tracker ↗

Release	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Debian 11	android-platform-system-core	1:7.0.0+r1-4	—

Ubuntu

Security tracker ↗

Release	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	android +1	No fix yet	—

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

Exploit-DB 1

Google Android - libutils UTF16 to UTF8 Conversion Heap Buffer Overflow EDB-40354 · remote · Sep 8, 2016 · verified

GitHub 1 repository

kswzzl/CVE-2016-3861 ★ 1 · Dec 21, 2019

my extended take on Mark Brand's CVE 2016-3861 libutils bug

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

LibUtils in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, 6.x before 2016-09-01, and 7.0 before 2016-09-01 mishandles c…