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Samsung MobileOperating system · Samsung

CVE-2016-6527

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-01-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The SmartCall Activity component in Telecom application on Samsung Note device L(5.0/5.1) and M(6.0) allows attackers to cause a denial of service (crash and reboot) or possibly gain privileges via a malformed serializable object.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

The SmartCall Activity in Samsung's Telecom system application fails to properly validate deserialized serializable objects, allowing a malformed serializable payload to trigger either a denial of service (device crash/reboot) or potentially execute code with elevated privileges. This is an insecure deserialization vulnerability in a privileged system app on Android L and M versions.

MitigationApply Samsung security firmware updates for affected Note devices (Android L 5.0/5.1 and M 6.0). Until patched, restrict device access to trusted networks and disable SmartCall features if possible to reduce attack surface.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Samsung MobileOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 5.1= 6.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm device is Samsung
    Run 'getprop ro.product.brand' or check Settings > About Phone > Manufacturer
    Affected if Device is not Samsung - vulnerability does not apply
  2. Verify Android version is affected
    Run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' or check Settings > About Phone > Android version
    Affected if Version is 5.0, 5.1, or 6.0 - within affected range
  3. Identify Samsung Telecom app is installed
    Run 'pm list packages | grep -i telecom' or 'pm list packages | grep -i phone' to find the Samsung Telecom system app package
    Affected if Samsung Telecom system app (com.samsung.android.app.telephony or similar) is present
  4. Confirm SmartCall component exists
    Run 'dumpsys package <telecom_package>' and look for SmartCall or CallPlusActivity in the activity list, or check for the SmartCall service
    Affected if SmartCall Activity/component exists in the Telecom app

You are affected if the device is Samsung, runs Android 5.0/5.1/6.0, and has the SmartCall feature present in the Telecom system app.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Samsung security firmware updates for affected Note devices (Android L 5.0/5.1 and M 6.0). Until patched, restrict device access to trusted networks and disable SmartCall features if possible to reduce attack surface.

Fix this in Samsung Mobile Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,460
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-6527 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data