CVE-2025-26449 is a vulnerability identified in Google Android versions 13, 14, and 15 that results in a potential permanent denial of service (DoS) condition caused by resource exhaustion. The flaw exists in multiple locations within the Android operating system, where certain operations can consume excessive system resources leading to a state where the device becomes unresponsive or unusable until a manual reboot or intervention occurs. This vulnerability does not require any user interaction to be exploited, and the attacker only needs limited privileges (low-level privileges) on the device to trigger the resource exhaustion. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-400, which relates to uncontrolled resource consumption, indicating that the system fails to properly limit or manage resource usage under certain conditions. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.5 (medium severity), with the vector indicating local attack vector (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring privileges (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), no impact on confidentiality or integrity (C:N/I:N), but high impact on availability (A:H). No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches have been linked yet. This vulnerability could be triggered by a local attacker or malicious app with limited privileges to cause a denial of service, potentially disrupting device availability and usability.

For European organizations, especially those relying on Android devices for critical business operations, this vulnerability poses a risk of service disruption. The denial of service could affect mobile workforce productivity, customer-facing applications, or operational continuity if devices become unresponsive. In sectors such as finance, healthcare, and public services where Android devices are used for secure communications or data access, the inability to use devices could delay critical tasks or emergency responses. Although the vulnerability does not allow data theft or integrity compromise, the loss of availability can lead to operational downtime and potential financial losses. Additionally, organizations with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies may face increased risk if employees’ devices are compromised, potentially impacting corporate network access or support resources. The lack of required user interaction and low privilege requirements make exploitation easier in environments where device access controls are weak. However, since exploitation is local, remote attacks are less likely unless combined with other vulnerabilities or social engineering to gain device access.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Monitor for updates from Google and device manufacturers and apply patches promptly once available. 2) Implement strict application control policies to limit installation of untrusted or low-privilege apps that could exploit this vulnerability. 3) Employ mobile device management (MDM) solutions to enforce security policies, monitor device health, and remotely remediate or isolate affected devices. 4) Educate users about the risks of installing apps from unverified sources and encourage regular device restarts to recover from potential resource exhaustion states. 5) Limit physical and logical access to devices to prevent local attackers from exploiting the vulnerability. 6) Consider deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools capable of detecting abnormal resource usage patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. 7) For critical environments, evaluate the feasibility of restricting Android versions to those not affected or using hardened/custom Android builds with additional resource management controls.