Local privilege escalation via caller UID confusion
Published Dec 8, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Privilege escalation in Android 13 and 14 allows local users to gain elevated access by launching an activity from the background. ActivityTaskManagerService.startNextMatchingActivity assigns the original launcher's UID as realCallingUid instead of the actual caller UID, inheriting background-launch privileges. A low-privileged local app can exploit this identity confusion without user interaction; the documented consequence is unauthorized background activity launch and local privilege escalation.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Android 13 and 14 allows local users to gain elevated access by launching an activity from the background. ActivityTaskManagerService.startNextMatchingActivity assigns the original launcher's UID as realCallingUid instead of the actual caller UID, inheriting background-launch privileges. A low-privileged local app can exploit this identity confusion without user interaction; the documented consequence is unauthorized background activity launch and local privilege escalation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-48627
- Published
- Dec 8, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Google Cloud
- Product
- Android
- Classifications
- T1404
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 8, 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
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=13
- Affected versionversion=14
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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