CVE-2023-20916 — In getMainActivityLaunchIntent of LauncherAppsService

In getMainActivityLaunchIntent of LauncherAppsService.java, there is a possible way to bypass the restrictions on starting activities from the background due to a missing permission check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges ne

01What is this vulnerability?

In getMainActivityLaunchIntent of LauncherAppsService.java, there is a possible way to bypass the restrictions on starting activities from the background due to a missing permission check. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.Product: AndroidVersions: Android-12 Android-12LAndroid ID…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / Android	Android-12 Android-12L

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-04-02T14:50:21.107Z

09References

• source.android.com — https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2023-01-01