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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 1 Dec 2025.
AndroidOperating system · Samsung

CVE-2025-21042

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-09-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Out-of-bounds write in libimagecodec.quram.so prior to SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

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 confidence

Out-of-bounds write vulnerability in Samsung's libimagecodec.quram.so image codec library allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted image files. The flaw exists in versions prior to the SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 patch.

MitigationApply Samsung SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 or later security patch to affected devices to address the vulnerable libimagecodec.quram.so library.

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:= 13.0= 14.0= 15.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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. Check Android version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Android version and note the exact version number
    Affected if Version is exactly 13.0, 14.0, or 15.0
  2. Locate libimagecodec.quram.so library
    Search for the file libimagecodec.quram.so on the device filesystem, typically found in /system/lib64/ or /vendor/lib64/ directories
    Affected if The library exists on the device and the Android version is 13.0, 14.0, or 15.0
  3. Check SMR firmware version
    Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Software information > Software version or Samsung version number to identify the SMR (Samsung Maintenance Release) version
    Affected if The SMR version is earlier than Apr-2025 Release 1 while running Android 13.0, 14.0, or 15.0

A device is affected if it runs Android 13.0, 14.0, or 15.0 with the vulnerable libimagecodec.quram.so library and has not received the Apr-2025 SMR patch.

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

Apply Samsung SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 or later security patch to affected devices to address the vulnerable libimagecodec.quram.so library.

Recommended fix High confidence

SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 (Security Patch Level April 2025)

  1. 1. Navigate to Settings on the Samsung Android device
  2. 2. Go to Software Update
  3. 3. Tap Download and install to check for the latest security update
  4. 4. Ensure the device updates to SMR Apr-2025 Release 1 or later which contains the patch for CVE-2025-21042
  5. 5. After update completes, verify the security patch level is April 2025 or newer in Settings > About Phone > Software Information > Security patch level

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

Fix this in Android Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,600
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-21042 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