CVE-2025-54654 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in Huawei's HarmonyOS, specifically affecting the Gallery module in versions 5.0.1 and 5.1.0. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-264, indicating weaknesses in permissions, privileges, and access controls. The technical root cause is improper permission enforcement within the Gallery module, which could allow an unprivileged local attacker to disrupt the availability of the Gallery service. The CVSS v3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) indicates that the attack requires local access but no privileges or user interaction, and it impacts only availability, not confidentiality or integrity. This means an attacker with local access to the device could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service, potentially disrupting user access to the Gallery application or related services. No patches have been publicly released yet, and no known exploits are reported in the wild. The vulnerability was reserved in July 2025 and published in October 2025, indicating recent discovery. Given Huawei's significant market share in mobile and IoT devices in Europe, this vulnerability could affect a considerable user base. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact reduces the risk of data leakage or manipulation, but service disruption could affect user experience and operational continuity, especially in environments relying on HarmonyOS devices for business or communication.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-54654 is the potential denial of service on devices running affected versions of HarmonyOS, specifically impacting the Gallery module. This could disrupt workflows or user access to multimedia services on Huawei devices, potentially affecting productivity and user satisfaction. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, availability disruptions could have operational consequences, especially in sectors relying on Huawei devices for communication or media management. Organizations with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies or those deploying Huawei devices in enterprise environments may face increased risk of localized service outages. The absence of remote exploitation capability limits the threat to scenarios where an attacker has physical or local network access, which somewhat reduces the overall risk. However, in environments with shared device usage or public access, the risk of exploitation increases. The lack of known exploits in the wild suggests limited current threat activity, but the medium severity score warrants proactive mitigation to prevent future exploitation.

1. Monitor Huawei’s official security advisories for patches addressing CVE-2025-54654 and apply them promptly once available. 2. Restrict physical and local network access to devices running affected HarmonyOS versions to trusted personnel only, minimizing the risk of local exploitation. 3. Implement device usage policies that limit exposure of Huawei devices in shared or public environments where local attackers could gain access. 4. Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of monitoring unusual process behaviors or service disruptions related to the Gallery module. 5. Educate users about the importance of device security and the risks of unauthorized local access. 6. For critical environments, consider temporary mitigation by disabling or restricting access to the Gallery module if feasible until patches are applied. 7. Maintain up-to-date inventories of devices running HarmonyOS to ensure comprehensive coverage of vulnerable systems. 8. Collaborate with Huawei support channels for guidance and early access to security updates.