CVE-2025-48531

Local privilege escalation via caller identity confusion

Published Sep 4, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026

Permission bypass in Android 13 through 16 allows local users to escalate privileges through the CredentialStorage activity. CredentialStorage trusts Activity.getCallingPackage(), which does not always identify the app that actually launched the activity. Low-privileged local access is required, but no user interaction or additional execution privilege is needed to cross the permission boundary.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability0.10%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Permission bypass in Android 13 through 16 allows local users to escalate privileges through the CredentialStorage activity. CredentialStorage trusts Activity.getCallingPackage(), which does not always identify the app that actually launched the activity. Low-privileged local access is required, but no user interaction or additional execution privilege is needed to cross the permission boundary.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-48531
Published
Sep 4, 2025
Updated
Feb 26, 2026
Vendor
Google Cloud
Product
Android
Classifications
CWE-693, T1404
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Sep 4, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 26, 2026Record 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=13
  2. Affected versionversion=14
  3. Affected versionversion=15
  4. Affected versionversion=16

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Google Cloud · Androidversion=13; version=14; version=15; version=16

Published CVSS scores

7.8CISA-ADPCVSS: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.

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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

CWE-693Protection Mechanism Failure
T1404Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

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

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Your stack

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