Double-free in MediaTek AFE causes local priv escalation
CVE-2026-20573 Published on November 2, 2026

In afe, there is a possible memory corruption due to double free. 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: ALPS11431412; Issue ID: MSV-9923.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20573 can be exploited with local system access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

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

Weakness Type

What is a Double-free Vulnerability?

The product calls free() twice on the same memory address, potentially leading to modification of unexpected memory locations. When a program calls free() twice with the same argument, the program's memory management data structures become corrupted. This corruption can cause the program to crash or, in some circumstances, cause two later calls to malloc() to return the same pointer. If malloc() returns the same value twice and the program later gives the attacker control over the data that is written into this doubly-allocated memory, the program becomes vulnerable to a buffer overflow attack.

CVE-2026-20573 has been classified to as a Double-free vulnerability or weakness.


Affected Versions

MediaTek, Inc. MediaTek chipset: