CVE-2023-21266

Local privilege escalation via unrestricted process termination

Published Oct 6, 2023 · Updated May 5, 2025

Permissions bypass in Android 12, 12L, and 13 Framework allows local users to escalate privileges without user interaction. ActivityManagerService's killBackgroundProcesses and killAllBackgroundProcesses paths fail to restrict non-system callers to their own application processes, allowing protection services to be terminated. An installed third-party app can invoke the normal-protection API; no additional execution privileges or user action is required.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability0.11%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Permissions bypass in Android 12, 12L, and 13 Framework allows local users to escalate privileges without user interaction. ActivityManagerService's killBackgroundProcesses and killAllBackgroundProcesses paths fail to restrict non-system callers to their own application processes, allowing protection services to be terminated. An installed third-party app can invoke the normal-protection API; no additional execution privileges or user action is required.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-21266
Published
Oct 6, 2023
Updated
May 5, 2025
Vendor
Google
Product
Android
Classifications
T1562.001
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 6, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 5, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=12
  2. Affected versionversion=12L
  3. Affected versionversion=13

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Google · Androidversion=12; version=12L; version=13

Published CVSS scores

7.8CISA-ADPCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.8NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

T1562.001Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

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Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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