Local privilege escalation via thermal race condition
Published May 5, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Out-of-bounds write in the thermal component of MediaTek chipsets on Android 14.0 and 15.0 allows local users to escalate privileges. A race condition permits the thermal component to write beyond a buffer boundary, although MediaTek has not disclosed the affected function or competing operations. Exploitation requires existing System privilege and no user interaction; successful memory corruption provides higher local privileges.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds write in the thermal component of MediaTek chipsets on Android 14.0 and 15.0 allows local users to escalate privileges. A race condition permits the thermal component to write beyond a buffer boundary, although MediaTek has not disclosed the affected function or competing operations. Exploitation requires existing System privilege and no user interaction; successful memory corruption provides higher local privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-20671
- Published
- May 5, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-787, T1404
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 5, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
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.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo