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AndroidOperating system · Google

CVE-2022-33685

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-07-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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
Unprotected dynamic receiver in Wearable Manager Service prior to SMR Jul-2022 Release 1 allows attacker to launch arbitray activity and access senstive information.

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

An unprotected dynamic BroadcastReceiver in Samsung's Wearable Manager Service allows any installed application to send intents to it without authentication. This enables a local attacker to launch arbitrary activities within the service and potentially access sensitive information exposed through these activities.

MitigationSamsung should enforce permission checks on the dynamic receiver (e.g., signature-level permission) and validate the calling application's identity before executing any actions or returning sensitive data.

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
AndroidOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0= 12.0

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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. Check Android version
    Go to Settings > About Phone > Android version. The device must be running Android 10, 11, or 12 for this vulnerability to apply.
    Affected if The device runs Android 10, 11, or 12
  2. Identify if Samsung Wearable Manager Service is present
    Check installed apps for 'Wearable Manager' or 'Samsung Wearable Manager' package. Use adb command: 'adb shell pm list packages | grep -i wearable'
    Affected if The Samsung Wearable Manager Service app is installed on the device
  3. Verify the dynamic BroadcastReceiver exists and lacks protection
    Use adb to dump receiver info: 'adb shell dumpsys package <wearable_package> | grep -A 10 BroadcastReceiver'. Check if the receiver is dynamic (not declared in manifest) and has no permission requirement (no permission attribute).
    Affected if A dynamic BroadcastReceiver is found with no permission or signature-level protection enforced
  4. Test if other apps can invoke the receiver
    Use a test app or adb to send a test intent to known receiver actions exposed by the Wearable Manager Service. Observe if the intent is accepted without permission check error.
    Affected if Intents are accepted from other apps without signature permission validation

A device is affected if it runs Android 10, 11, or 12 and has Samsung Wearable Manager Service installed with an unprotected dynamic BroadcastReceiver that accepts intents from any application.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Samsung should enforce permission checks on the dynamic receiver (e.g., signature-level permission) and validate the calling application's identity before executing any actions or returning sensitive data.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

SMR Jul-2022 Release 1 or later

  1. Check your current Samsung security patch level in Settings > About phone > Software information > Security patch level
  2. Navigate to Settings > Software update and select 'Download and install' to check for available updates
  3. Update to the SMR Jul-2022 Release 1 or later which contains the fix for the unprotected dynamic receiver in Wearable Manager Service
  4. Verify the security patch level has been updated after installation

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Android Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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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-2022-33685 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