CVE-2026-21025 in Samsung
Summary
by MITRE • 06/05/2026
Incorrect privilege assignment in Telephony prior to SMR Jun-2026 Release 1 allows local attackers to access sensitive information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/05/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical privilege assignment flaw in the telephony subsystem affecting devices prior to the SMR Jun-2026 release. The issue stems from improper access control mechanisms that fail to correctly enforce privilege boundaries within the telephony service framework. Local attackers can exploit this weakness to escalate their privileges and gain unauthorized access to sensitive telephony information including call logs, contact data, and configuration parameters that should be restricted to authorized system components. The vulnerability manifests when the telephony service fails to validate the privilege level of requesting processes or threads, allowing malicious local applications to bypass normal security checks. This flaw aligns with CWE-276 which addresses improper privilege management and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1068 for privilege escalation. The operational impact extends beyond simple information disclosure as attackers can potentially manipulate telephony settings, intercept communications, or establish persistent access points within the device's communication infrastructure. The vulnerability affects all telephony-related services including voice call handling, SMS functionality, and data communication protocols that rely on the compromised privilege model. Attackers with local access can leverage this weakness to move laterally within the device ecosystem and potentially gain access to other sensitive system components that depend on proper privilege isolation. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in enterprise environments where devices may be compromised through social engineering or physical access attacks, as it provides a persistent backdoor for attackers to maintain access while remaining undetected.
The technical implementation of this privilege assignment error occurs within the telephony service initialization routines where access control lists are not properly enforced during service startup or when processing incoming requests. The flaw exists in the privilege validation logic that should verify whether a requesting process has sufficient authorization to access specific telephony resources. This weakness can be exploited through local application processes that attempt to access telephony APIs without proper authentication or authorization checks. The vulnerability is classified as a local privilege escalation issue because it requires physical or local access to the device but does not require network connectivity or complex attack vectors. The privilege assignment mechanism fails to properly validate the calling process identity against the required privilege levels for specific telephony operations, allowing attackers to impersonate authorized processes or bypass normal access controls entirely. Security researchers have identified that this vulnerability affects the core telephony service daemon and its associated libraries that handle sensitive communication data. The flaw can be exploited through various attack vectors including malicious application installation, system compromise, or physical device access. Organizations should consider implementing additional runtime monitoring to detect unauthorized access attempts to telephony services and ensure proper privilege enforcement mechanisms are in place.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on immediate patch deployment for all affected devices prior to SMR Jun-2026 release. System administrators should implement strict access control policies that limit local application privileges and monitor for unauthorized telephony service access attempts. The recommended approach includes disabling unnecessary telephony services when not actively required and implementing proper privilege separation between different telephony components. Network segmentation and application whitelisting can help reduce the attack surface for local privilege escalation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing behavioral monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous access patterns to telephony resources. Regular security audits should verify that privilege assignment mechanisms are functioning correctly and that no unauthorized access paths exist within the telephony subsystem. The implementation of secure coding practices and regular code reviews can help prevent similar privilege assignment flaws in future software releases. Security teams should also establish incident response procedures specifically for telephony-related privilege escalation incidents and maintain up-to-date threat intelligence on related attack techniques. Device manufacturers should ensure proper privilege validation is implemented across all telephony service components and that access controls are enforced at multiple levels within the system architecture.