CVE-2025-68962 identifies a race condition vulnerability categorized under CWE-362 in Huawei's HarmonyOS camera framework module, affecting versions 5.0.1 and 5.1.0. The vulnerability stems from improper synchronization when multiple threads concurrently access shared resources within the camera subsystem. This concurrency flaw can lead to unpredictable behavior, primarily impacting system availability by causing potential crashes or denial of service conditions in the camera functionality. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.1 (medium severity), with the vector indicating local attack vector (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring high privileges (PR:H), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), no confidentiality impact (C:N), low integrity impact (I:L), and high availability impact (A:H). Exploitation requires an attacker to have elevated privileges on the device, which limits remote exploitation but still poses a risk if an attacker gains local access. No public exploits or patches are currently available, highlighting the importance of proactive mitigation. The vulnerability's impact is confined to availability disruption, potentially causing denial of service in camera operations, which could affect user experience and device reliability. Given Huawei's market presence in Europe, especially in consumer and enterprise devices running HarmonyOS, this vulnerability warrants attention from security teams managing such assets.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-68962 is the potential disruption of device availability, particularly affecting devices running Huawei HarmonyOS with camera functionalities. This could impair business operations relying on these devices for communication, surveillance, or other camera-dependent applications. Although the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or data integrity, denial of service conditions could lead to operational downtime, impacting productivity and user trust. Organizations in sectors such as telecommunications, public safety, and government agencies using Huawei devices may face increased risks. Additionally, the requirement for high privileges to exploit the vulnerability reduces the likelihood of widespread attacks but emphasizes the need for strict access controls. The absence of known exploits in the wild currently limits immediate threat but does not preclude future exploitation. Given the strategic use of Huawei technology in Europe, especially in countries with significant Huawei device adoption, the vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks aiming to disrupt services.

1. Monitor Huawei's official security advisories for patches addressing CVE-2025-68962 and apply them promptly once released. 2. Enforce strict access controls to limit local high-privilege user accounts, reducing the risk of exploitation by unauthorized users. 3. Implement application whitelisting and endpoint protection to detect and prevent unauthorized attempts to exploit the camera framework. 4. Conduct regular audits of device configurations and privilege assignments to ensure minimal necessary access is granted. 5. Employ runtime monitoring of camera subsystem behavior to detect anomalies indicative of race condition exploitation attempts. 6. Educate users and administrators about the risks of granting elevated privileges and the importance of maintaining updated device firmware. 7. For organizations deploying HarmonyOS devices, consider network segmentation to isolate critical systems from potentially vulnerable endpoints. 8. Develop incident response plans that include scenarios involving denial of service on critical device functions to minimize operational impact.