Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-20916 is a medium-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Samsung Notes. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 19th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-20916 is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the Samsung Notes application, specifically affecting versions prior to 4.4.26.71. The flaw occurs during the reading of an S Pen-related string, allowing attackers to access memory outside the intended bounds, as classified under CWE-125. Published on March 6, 2025, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N), indicating a medium-severity issue with high confidentiality impact but no integrity or availability disruption.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability without user interaction. By triggering the faulty string read in the S Pen handling code, the attacker gains read access to out-of-bounds memory, potentially exposing sensitive data such as other process memory contents, user information, or application internals.
Samsung's security advisory, available at https://security.samsungmobile.com/serviceWeb.smsb?year=2025&month=03, details the issue and recommends updating Samsung Notes to version 4.4.26.71 or later to mitigate the vulnerability.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-6133
Vulnerability Data
Out-of-bounds read in reading string of SPen in Samsung Notes prior to version 4.4.26.71 allows attackers to read out-of-bounds memory.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation directly finds out-of-bounds read flaws through static analysis, fuzzing, and dynamic bounds checks.
Secure engineering principles require bounds checking and memory-safe constructs that stop out-of-bounds reads from being introduced.
Process isolation confines the effects of an out-of-bounds read to the compromised process.
Input validation rejects malformed indices or lengths that would otherwise cause reads outside buffer bounds.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.
Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.
Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.
Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.
Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.