CVE-2025-20890
Published: 04 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20890 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787) vulnerability in Samsung Android. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 29.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-20890 is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability (CWE-787) in the decoding frame buffer of libsthmbc.so, affecting versions prior to SMR Jan-2025 Release 1. Published on 2025-02-04 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.0 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), it enables local attackers to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.
Local attackers with no required privileges can exploit this vulnerability, but it demands high attack complexity and user interaction to trigger. Successful exploitation allows arbitrary code execution with privileges, potentially leading to full system compromise on affected Samsung devices.
Samsung's security update advisory for January 2025, available at https://security.samsungmobile.com/securityUpdate.smsb?year=2025&month=01, addresses this issue through the SMR Jan-2025 Release 1, which practitioners should apply to mitigate the vulnerability.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-2203
Vulnerability details
Out-of-bounds write in decoding frame buffer in libsthmbc.so prior to SMR Jan-2025 Release 1 allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code with privilege. User interaction is required for triggering this vulnerability.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Out-of-bounds write enables local arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges, directly mapping to exploitation for privilege escalation.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the out-of-bounds write vulnerability by applying the vendor-provided patch in SMR Jan-2025 Release 1.
Provides memory protections such as address space layout randomization and stack guards to block exploitation of the out-of-bounds write for arbitrary code execution.
Validates inputs to the frame buffer decoder to restrict malformed data that could trigger the out-of-bounds write during decoding.