Threats / Samsung / CVE-2021-25369
CVE-2021-25369
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Samsung Mobile Devices vulnerability
Samsung mobile devices with Mali GPU contain an improper access control vulnerability in the sec_log file that exposes sensitive kernel information to userspace. The vulnerability has been exploited in the wild and chained with other CVEs.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An unprivileged local attacker can read sensitive kernel information through improper access controls on the sec_log file, potentially enabling privilege escalation or further system compromise when combined with other vulnerabilities.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-11-085EPSS 0.01121 (verify live)6CVSS 6.23CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: partial4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
5 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-11-08).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.01121 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 6.2 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N) · Affected: Samsung, Mobile Devices. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-200 Information Exposure — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: partialCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 592 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I gain local access to a Samsung mobile device and read the sec_log file to extract sensitive kernel memory information.
Business
Device security is compromised as kernel-level secrets become accessible to unprivileged processes.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I use the exposed kernel information to identify memory layouts and security mechanisms, enabling me to chain this vulnerability with CVE-2021-25337 or CVE-2021-25370 for privilege escalation.
Business
Complete device compromise becomes feasible through coordinated exploitation of multiple vulnerabilities.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by Samsung MobileCNA
Credited with finding itNo finder is named in the public CVE record or the scanned vendor advisory — attribution scoped to the sources checked.
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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