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Mallory
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Android System forwarded intent user profile boundary bypass EoP

IdentifiersCVE-2025-48566CWE-20· Improper Input Validation

CVE-2025-48566 is an Android System elevation-of-privilege vulnerability affecting supported Android releases covered by the December 2025 Android Security Bulletin, including Android 13 through 16. According to the provided description, the issue exists in multiple locations and is caused by improper input validation when handling a forwarded intent. An attacker can exploit this flaw to bypass a user profile boundary, allowing actions or access to occur across profile isolation boundaries that should normally be enforced by the platform. Successful exploitation can result in local privilege escalation without requiring additional execution privileges, and no user interaction is needed.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation allows a local attacker to bypass Android user profile separation and achieve elevation of privilege. The primary security impact is a breakdown of profile-boundary enforcement, which can enable unauthorized cross-profile access or operations from a less-privileged context. Because no user interaction is required and no additional execution privileges are needed, the flaw lowers the barrier for a malicious local app or process to gain capabilities beyond its intended profile scope.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If patching cannot be applied immediately, reduce exposure by limiting installation of untrusted or unnecessary applications, especially on devices using work profile or multi-profile configurations where cross-profile boundary enforcement is security-relevant. Restrict sideloading, enforce application allowlisting through enterprise management where possible, and accelerate update compliance tracking for Android 13-16 devices. These measures are only compensating controls; the definitive mitigation is installation of the vendor/OEM security update containing the fix.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the December 2025 Android security updates that include the fix for CVE-2025-48566. Per the provided bulletin context, organizations should prioritize deployment of the December 2025 patch level across supported Android 13 through 16 devices, with 2025-12-05 or later considered protected against all issues in the bulletin. Ensure OEM/vendor updates are also applied where applicable, as device integration schedules may lag behind bulletin publication.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
GoogleAndroidoperating_system

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity2

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.