VulnerabilityPublished 5 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-28541: Huawei HarmonyOS · Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Affects Huawei HarmonyOSSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.0 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 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:N/I:N/A:L

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

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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 30 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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
HuaweiHarmonyOS	Affected =6.0.0 =5.1.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Restrict local access to devices running affected HarmonyOS versions by enforcing strong physical security controls and limiting user permissions.
Monitor Huawei's official security advisories and promptly apply patches or updates once available to remediate the vulnerability.
Employ endpoint protection solutions capable of detecting anomalous local activities that may attempt to exploit permission weaknesses in system modules.
Implement network-level monitoring to detect unusual cellular data disruptions that could indicate exploitation attempts.
For organizations deploying HarmonyOS in critical environments, consider network segmentation and device isolation to limit the impact of potential availability attacks.
Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on permission and access control mechanisms within device OS components.
Educate users and administrators about the risks of local exploitation and the importance of safeguarding device access.
If possible, disable or restrict the cellular_data module functionality on devices where cellular connectivity is not required to reduce attack surface.

Description

Permission control vulnerability in the cellular_data module. Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect availability.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-28541 is on system availability, potentially causing denial of service conditions that disrupt cellular data connectivity on affected Huawei HarmonyOS devices. This can lead to loss of network access, affecting communication, data transmission, and any services reliant on cellular connectivity. For organizations, this may result in operational disruptions, especially for those relying on Huawei devices for critical communications or IoT deployments. Although the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can degrade user experience and business continuity. The requirement for local access limits remote exploitation risk but raises concerns in environments where devices may be physically accessible or compromised by malicious insiders or malware. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the lack of patches means the vulnerability remains a latent threat. Organizations using affected HarmonyOS versions should consider the potential for targeted attacks aiming to disrupt cellular services, particularly in sectors like telecommunications, government, and critical infrastructure where Huawei devices are prevalent.

CWE-264Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls (opens in a new tab)
CategoryOWASP Top 10 A01:2021: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
Weaknesses in this category are related to the management of permissions, privileges, and other security features that are used to perform access control.
MITRE does not allow mapping vulnerabilities to this entry; it groups weaknesses rather than naming one.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 5 Mar 2026, 08:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-264

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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