What is CVE-2018-21038?

CVE-2018-21038 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Google Android, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-04-08.

How severe is CVE-2018-21038?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Auth bypass in Google Android

CVE-2018-21038

An issue was discovered on Samsung mobile devices with N(7.x) software. The Secure Folder app's startup logic allows authentication bypass. The Samsung ID is SVE-2018-11628 (December 2018).

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published 2020-04-08 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (40.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 41st percentile — 40.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Google Android — versions 7.0, 7.1.0, 7.1.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-287 — Improper Authentication

References

security.samsungmobile.com/securityUpdate.smsb (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-21038?: CVE-2018-21038 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Google Android, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-04-08.
How severe is CVE-2018-21038?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.