What is CVE-2017-8851?

CVE-2017-8851 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Oneplus One, classified under Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-05-11.

How severe is CVE-2017-8851?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.

Is CVE-2017-8851 known to be exploited?

4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Oneplus One

CVE-2017-8851

An issue was discovered on OnePlus One and X devices. Due to a lenient updater-script on the OnePlus One and X OTA images, the fact that both products use the same OTA verification keys, and the fact that both products share the same 'ro.build.product' system property, attackers can install OTAs of one product over the other, even on locked bootloaders. That could theoretically allow for exploitation of vulnerabilities patched on one image but not on the other, in addition to expansion of the attack surface. Moreover, the vulnerability may result in having the device unusable until a Factory Reset is performed. This vulnerability can be exploited by Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attackers targeting the update process. This is possible because the update transaction does not occur over TLS (CVE-2016-10370). In addition, physical attackers can reboot the phone into recovery, and then use 'adb sideload' to push the OTA.

Published 2017-05-11 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (36.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 37th percentile — 36.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-319 — Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

alephsecurity.com/vulns/aleph-2017021 (Technical Description, Exploit, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-8851?: CVE-2017-8851 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Oneplus One, classified under Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-05-11.
How severe is CVE-2017-8851?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.
Is CVE-2017-8851 known to be exploited?: 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.