CVE-2023-35674Known exploitation

Local privilege escalation via virtual presentation window

Published Sep 11, 2023 · Updated Oct 21, 2025

Privilege escalation in Google Android 11, 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to launch a background activity without user interaction. WindowState counts presentation windows on virtual displays as visible and reports their owner UID as active, causing background-activity-launch checks to treat an app as foreground. A low-privileged app can exploit this logic to start an otherwise blocked activity with elevated privileges.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability2.81%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationReported
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Google Android 11, 12, 12L, and 13 allows local users to launch a background activity without user interaction. WindowState counts presentation windows on virtual displays as visible and reports their owner UID as active, causing background-activity-launch checks to treat an app as foreground. A low-privileged app can exploit this logic to start an otherwise blocked activity with elevated privileges.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-35674
Published
Sep 11, 2023
Updated
Oct 21, 2025
Vendor
Google
Product
Android
Classifications
CWE-269, T1404
Attack vector
local
Privileges
Unavailable

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Sep 11, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Oct 21, 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=11
  2. Affected versionversion=12
  3. Affected versionversion=12l
  4. Affected versionversion=12L
  5. Affected versionversion=13

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesUnavailable in this record.

What is affected?

Google · Androidversion=11; version=12; version=12l; version=12L; version=13

Published CVSS scores

7.8NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
8.8CISA ADP VulnrichmentCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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
PrivilegesUnavailable
Known exploitationReported
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-269Improper Privilege Management
T1404Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

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Reported exploitation

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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