CVE-2025-53170VulnerabilityPublished 7 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-53170: Huawei HarmonyOS · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects Huawei HarmonyOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.0 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.0Medium

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:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: None
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: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within 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 7 Jul 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 =5.1.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

European organizations should prioritize the following mitigation steps: 1) Monitor Huawei's official security advisories closely for the release of patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-53170 and apply them promptly once available. 2) Restrict local access to devices running HarmonyOS 5.1.0 to trusted users only, employing strong physical and logical access controls to prevent unauthorized local exploitation. 3) Implement application and process monitoring to detect abnormal crashes or instability in the application exit cause module, enabling rapid incident response. 4) Employ device hardening techniques, such as disabling unnecessary services and enforcing least privilege principles, to reduce the attack surface. 5) Conduct security awareness training for personnel with local access to HarmonyOS devices to recognize and report unusual device behavior. 6) Consider network segmentation and isolation for critical HarmonyOS-powered devices to limit potential lateral movement if instability is exploited. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on access control, monitoring, and proactive patch management tailored to the local attack vector and function instability nature of the vulnerability.

Description

Null pointer dereference vulnerability in the application exit cause module Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect function stability.

Impact

For European organizations using Huawei HarmonyOS 5.1.0, this vulnerability could lead to localized instability in applications or system modules related to the application exit process. While the direct impact on confidentiality, integrity, or availability is limited, the instability could disrupt critical applications or services running on devices powered by HarmonyOS, particularly in environments where system reliability is essential. Industries such as telecommunications, manufacturing, or public services that deploy Huawei devices with HarmonyOS could experience intermittent crashes or degraded performance. Although the attack vector is local, meaning an attacker needs local access to the device, this could be a concern in shared or multi-user environments or where insider threats exist. The lack of remote exploitability reduces the risk of widespread attacks but does not eliminate the threat to sensitive or critical systems. Additionally, the vulnerability might be used as part of a multi-stage attack chain, where causing instability could facilitate further exploitation or denial of service.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/2025/7/ (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 7 Jul 2025, 02:58 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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