# CVE-2017-5217: Denial of service in n/a > A malicious zero-permission app can cause a persistent denial of service on Samsung Android devices by triggering a system_server crash via memory exhaustion during APK parsing. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Not needed - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something - **Fix available:** No - **Published:** 9 Jan 2017 - **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024 - **Also known as:** GHSA-gwv4-rqw3-4w2c ## What is CVE-2017-5217? CVE-2017-5217 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jan 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link. ### Official description Installing a zero-permission Android application on certain Samsung Android devices with KK(4.4), L(5.0/5.1), and M(6.0) software can continually crash the system_server process in the Android OS. The zero-permission app will create an active install session for a separate app that it has embedded within it. The active install session of the embedded app is performed using the android.content.pm.PackageInstaller class and its nested classes in the Android API. The active install session will write the embedded APK file to the /data/app directory, but the app will not be installed since third-party applications cannot programmatically install apps. Samsung has modified AOSP in order to accelerate the parsing of APKs by introducing the com.android.server.pm.PackagePrefetcher class and its nested classes. These classes will parse the APKs present in the /data/app directory and other directories, even if the app is not actually installed. The embedded APK that was written to the /data/app directory via the active install session has a very large but valid AndroidManifest.xml file. Specifically, the AndroidManifest.xml file contains a very large string value for the name of a permission-tree that it declares. When system_server tries to parse the APK file of the embedded app from the active install session, it will crash due to an uncaught error (i.e., java.lang.OutOfMemoryError) or an uncaught exception (i.e., std::bad_alloc) because of memory constraints. The Samsung Android device will encounter a soft reboot due to a system_server crash, and this action will keep repeating since parsing the APKs in the /data/app directory as performed by the system_server process is part of the normal boot process. The Samsung ID is SVE-2016-6917. Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-5217? It affects 1 product. Products: Samsung Samsung Mobile. ## How do I fix CVE-2017-5217? No fix has been published for CVE-2017-5217 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available. ## Is CVE-2017-5217 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5217 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in n/a - [CVE-2018-9139](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-9139/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8) - [CVE-2018-9143](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-9143/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8) - [CVE-2017-5538](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5538/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8) - [CVE-2016-9965](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9965/): Denial of service in n/a (critical 9.8) - [CVE-2016-9966](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9966/): Denial of service in n/a (critical 9.8) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2017-5217 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2017-5217 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jan 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5217 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page. Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5217/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5217/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-5217 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5217 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-5217 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5217/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.