MAE OOB Write Race Local Escalation (MediaTek)
CVE-2026-20438 Published on March 2, 2026

In MAE, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a race condition. This could lead to local escalation of privilege if a malicious actor has already obtained the System privilege. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS10431920; Issue ID: MSV-5835.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20438 is exploitable with local system access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
HIGH
Privileges Required:
HIGH
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

What is a TOCTTOU Vulnerability?

The software checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check. This can cause the software to perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state. This weakness can be security-relevant when an attacker can influence the state of the resource between check and use. This can happen with shared resources such as files, memory, or even variables in multithreaded programs.

CVE-2026-20438 has been classified to as a TOCTTOU vulnerability or weakness.


Affected Versions

MediaTek, Inc. MediaTek chipset:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.01%
Percentile
0.26%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.