CVE-2026-20979
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 · uneditedImproper privilege management in Settings prior to SMR Feb-2026 Release 1 allows local attackers to launch arbitrary activity with Settings privilege.
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 confidenceImproper privilege management in Samsung's Settings application allows a local attacker to launch arbitrary activities with Settings-level privileges. This bypasses normal permission controls, enabling potentially malicious actions to be performed with elevated system access that should be restricted.
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= 15.0= 16.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Samsung Android versionNavigate to Settings > About Phone > Android version, or run 'getprop ro.build.version.release' via ADB shellAffected if The displayed version is exactly 15.0 or 16.0
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Confirm Samsung Android OS buildNavigate to Settings > About Phone > Software information > Build number, or run 'getprop ro.build.display.id' via ADB shellAffected if The build indicates Samsung Android 15.0 or 16.0 (such as 'UP1A.231005.007' or similar corresponding to these Android versions)
If the device runs Samsung Android version 15.0 or 16.0, the Settings application is affected by this privilege management flaw and could allow a local attacker to invoke activities with Settings-level privileges.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply Samsung's SMR Feb-2026 Release 1 or later security patch; this is a vendor-side issue requiring system update deployment rather than end-user configuration.
SMR Feb-2026 Release 1
- Navigate to Settings on the Samsung Android device
- Scroll to and tap on Software update
- Tap on Download and install to check for the February 2026 SMR (Security Maintenance Release) update
- If available, download and install the SMR Feb-2026 Release 1 security update which contains the fix for CVE-2026-20979
- Restart the device after the update completes to ensure all security patches are applied
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-20979 — 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-2026-20979 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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