CVE-2016-7989
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 · uneditedOn Samsung Galaxy S4 through S7 devices, a malformed OTA WAP PUSH SMS containing an OMACP message sent remotely triggers an unhandled ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in Samsung's implementation of the WifiServiceImpl class within wifi-service.jar. This causes the Android runtime to continually crash, rendering the device unusable until a factory reset is performed, a subset of SVE-2016-6542.
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 · high confidenceA malformed OTA WAP PUSH SMS containing an OMACP message triggers an unhandled ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in Samsung's WifiServiceImpl class (wifi-service.jar), causing persistent Android runtime crashes that render affected Galaxy S4-S7 devices unusable until factory reset.
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= 4.2.2= 4.3= 4.3.1= 4.4= 4.4.1= 4.4.2= 4.4.3= 4.4.4= 5.0= 5.0.1= 5.0.2= 5.1CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Android versionGo to Settings > About Phone > Android version (or use 'getprop ro.build.version.sdk' via ADB)Affected if The version matches 4.2.2, 4.3, 4.3.1, 4.4, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.4.4, 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, or 5.1
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Confirm device modelGo to Settings > About Phone > Model number (or use 'getprop ro.product.model' via ADB)Affected if The device is a Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, S6, or S7 (or any variant like SM-Gxxx, SM-G9xx, SM-G93x, SM-G95x series)
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Verify SMS application can receive WAP PushCheck that SMS/MMS application is enabled and capable of receiving OTA WAP PUSH messages (default Android behavior)Affected if The device can receive and process OTA WAP PUSH SMS messages (default enabled)
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Check for vendor security patchCheck Settings > About Phone > Security patch level (or review vendor OTA update history for SVE-2016-6542 or later)Affected if The Security patch level is earlier than the vendor-supplied patch for SVE-2016-6542, or the patch level is unknown/unavailable
The device is affected if it is a Samsung Galaxy S4-S7 running Android 4.2.2-5.1 that has not received the vendor security patch for SVE-2016-6542, and it can receive OTA WAP PUSH SMS messages (default behavior).
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply vendor-supplied OTA security patches (SVE-2016-6542 and subsequent updates); users of affected devices should avoid opening suspicious SMS messages from unknown sources until patches are applied.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-7989 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-7989 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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