VulnerabilityPublished 5 Jan 2026

CVE-2025-52515: Race Condition

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.1 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.1Medium

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

EPSS: 0.09% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 0% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

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: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Jan 2026
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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

AI-suggested

Organizations should implement several specific measures to mitigate this vulnerability: 1) Monitor Samsung and chipset vendor advisories closely for official patches or firmware updates addressing this issue and apply them promptly. 2) Restrict physical and local access to devices running affected Exynos processors to trusted personnel only, minimizing the risk of local exploitation. 3) Enforce strict device usage policies, including disabling unnecessary camera functionalities where feasible, to reduce attack surface. 4) Employ mobile device management (MDM) solutions to monitor device health and detect abnormal crashes or instability that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Educate users about the risks of installing untrusted software or granting local access to unknown parties. 6) For critical environments, consider alternative hardware platforms until patches are available. 7) Conduct regular security audits focusing on device drivers and hardware components to identify and remediate similar concurrency issues proactively.

Description

CVE-2025-52515 is a medium severity vulnerability affecting the issimian device driver in Samsung Mobile and Wearable Processors (Exynos 1330, 1380, 1480, 2400, 1580, 2500). It arises from a race condition causing out-of-bounds memory access, resulting in denial of service (DoS). The vulnerability requires local access with high attack complexity and no privileges or user interaction. While it does not impact confidentiality or integrity, it can disrupt device availability. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been published yet. European organizations using devices with these processors, especially in sectors relying on mobile and wearable technology, could face operational disruptions. Mitigation involves monitoring for vendor patches, restricting local access to trusted users, and applying strict device usage policies. Countries with high Samsung device adoption and advanced mobile infrastructure, such as Germany, France, and the UK, are most likely affected. The vulnerability’s medium severity reflects its limited scope and exploitation difficulty but notable impact on availability.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-52515 is the potential denial of service on devices using affected Samsung Exynos processors. This can disrupt business operations relying on mobile or wearable technology, including fieldwork, remote monitoring, and secure communications. Although confidentiality and integrity are not compromised, availability loss can affect productivity and user trust. Sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and public services that increasingly depend on wearable devices for monitoring and communication may experience operational interruptions. Additionally, organizations with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies could face increased risk if employees’ devices are affected. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the absence of patches means the vulnerability remains a latent threat. The high attack complexity and requirement for local access limit widespread exploitation but do not eliminate insider threat or targeted attack scenarios.

Summary

CVE-2025-52515 identifies a race condition vulnerability in the issimian device driver used in several Samsung Exynos processors (1330, 1380, 1480, 2400, 1580, 2500), which power mobile and wearable devices. The flaw stems from improper synchronization in the driver’s handling of camera-related operations, leading to out-of-bounds memory access. This memory corruption does not expose sensitive data or allow code execution but causes a denial of service by crashing or destabilizing the device. The vulnerability requires local access to the device, has a high attack complexity, and does not require privileges or user interaction, limiting the attack surface. The CVSS v3.1 score of 5.1 reflects these factors, indicating a medium severity level. No patches or known exploits have been reported as of the publication date, but the vulnerability poses a risk to device availability, particularly in environments where these processors are widely deployed. The underlying CWE-362 (Race Condition) highlights the concurrency issue in the driver code. This vulnerability primarily affects the camera subsystem, which is critical for many mobile and wearable applications, potentially impacting user experience and device reliability.

CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition') (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.
Architecture and Design
In languages that support it, use synchronization primitives. Only wrap these around critical code to minimize the impact on performance.
Architecture and Design
Use thread-safe capabilities such as the data access abstraction in Spring.
Architecture and Design
Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.11.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Leveraging Time-of-Check and Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
Leveraging Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 12 Jan 2026, 21:37 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-362

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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