dbcve.org
OpenharmonyOperating system · Openatom

CVE-2025-23409

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.0.2 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
in OpenHarmony v5.0.2 and prior versions allow a local attacker arbitrary code execution in pre-installed apps through use after free. This vulnerability can be exploited only in restricted scenarios.

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

A use-after-free vulnerability in OpenHarmony v5.0.2 and prior versions allows a local attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution within pre-installed applications. The vulnerability stems from improper memory management where memory is accessed after being freed, leading to memory corruption that can be leveraged for code execution in the restricted context of pre-installed apps.

MitigationApply vendor patches for OpenHarmony v5.0.2 and prior versions when available. Review and minimize privileges of pre-installed applications, and implement application sandboxing controls to limit the impact of successful exploitation.

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
OpenharmonyOperating system
Affected:>= 4.1.0, <= 5.0.2

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
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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. Identify OpenHarmony version
    Check the system version by running 'getprop ro.build.version.sdk' or checking /system/build.prop for the 'ro.build.version.release' or 'ro.build.version.preview_sdk' values that indicate the OpenHarmony release version
    Affected if The version falls within the range >= 4.1.0 and <= 5.0.2 as shown in the version properties
  2. Verify pre-installed applications are in use
    Review the list of installed applications using 'bm dump -a' or checking the /preinstall directory on the device to confirm presence of pre-installed apps that run with elevated privileges
    Affected if Pre-installed applications are present and actively running on the system
  3. Monitor for use-after-free symptoms
    Check system logs (logcat) for crash reports or ANR (Application Not Responding) events that reference memory corruption, double-free, or heap corruption patterns in pre-installed app processes
    Affected if Crash logs or memory error traces appear in logcat for pre-installed application processes
  4. Check for abnormal process behavior
    Use 'ps -A' to list running processes and examine any pre-installed app processes for unexpected behavior or examine dmesg for memory management error messages
    Affected if Pre-installed app processes exhibit unexpected behavior or memory-related error messages appear in kernel logs

You are affected if your OpenHarmony device runs version 4.1.0 through 5.0.2 and you have pre-installed applications active on the system.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.0.2
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor patches for OpenHarmony v5.0.2 and prior versions when available. Review and minimize privileges of pre-installed applications, and implement application sandboxing controls to limit the impact of successful exploitation.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

OpenHarmony release > 5.0.2 (verify the specific fixed version in official OpenHarmony security advisories on gitee.com)

  1. 1. Identify all OpenHarmony devices/systems running versions 4.1.0 through 5.0.2 in your environment
  2. 2. Check the official OpenHarmony release notes or gitee.com repository for the security update containing the fix for CVE-2025-23409
  3. 3. Plan an upgrade to the first OpenHarmony release that includes the patch for this Use After Free vulnerability
  4. 4. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first to verify compatibility
  5. 5. Apply the upgrade to production systems following standard change management procedures
Caveat Review release notes for the target version for any API changes or deprecations that may affect pre-installed applications

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

Fix this in Openharmony Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
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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-2025-23409 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