CVE-2025-27521VulnerabilityPublished 4 Mar 2025Updated 18 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-27521: Huawei HarmonyOS · Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges

Affects Huawei HarmonyOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.8 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.8Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 1% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Mar 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Huawei HarmonyOS	Affected =5.0.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediate mitigation involves restricting physical and local access to devices running HarmonyOS 5.0.0, ensuring only trusted personnel can interact with these systems. 2. Monitor and audit device usage logs for unusual local access attempts or process management anomalies. 3. Coordinate with Huawei for timely release and deployment of security patches addressing CVE-2025-27521. 4. Where possible, upgrade devices to newer HarmonyOS versions that include fixes for this vulnerability. 5. Implement network segmentation to isolate vulnerable devices, limiting lateral movement in case of compromise. 6. Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of detecting suspicious local process manipulations. 7. Educate staff about the risks of local device access and enforce strict device usage policies. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on access control, monitoring, vendor coordination, and network architecture adjustments specific to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

Vulnerability of improper access permission in the process management module Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect service confidentiality.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-27521 depends largely on the deployment of Huawei HarmonyOS devices within their infrastructure or user base. HarmonyOS is primarily used in Huawei's IoT devices, smartphones, and smart appliances. Organizations using Huawei devices running version 5.0.0 could face confidentiality breaches if attackers gain local access to these devices. This could lead to leakage of sensitive service data, potentially exposing proprietary information or user data. In sectors such as telecommunications, manufacturing, or smart city infrastructure where Huawei devices might be integrated, this vulnerability could undermine trust and data privacy compliance, especially under GDPR regulations. Although the attack requires local access, insider threats or attackers who gain physical access could exploit this flaw. The limited impact on integrity and availability reduces the risk of system disruption but does not eliminate the risk of data exposure. Given the absence of known exploits, the immediate threat level is moderate, but organizations should proactively address this vulnerability to prevent future exploitation.

CWE-280Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may cause it to follow unexpected code paths that may leave the product in an invalid state.
Architecture and Design · Separation of Privilege
Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
Implementation
Always check to see if you have successfully accessed a resource or system functionality, and use proper error handling if it is unsuccessful. Do this even when you are operating in a highly privileged mode, because errors or environmental conditions might still cause a failure.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/2025/3/ (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 19 Sep 2025, 00:11 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-280

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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