What is CVE-2018-21042?

CVE-2018-21042 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Google Android, classified under Missing Authorization. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-04-08.

How severe is CVE-2018-21042?

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

Auth bypass in Google Android

CVE-2018-21042

An issue was discovered on Samsung mobile devices with N(7.x), O(8.x), and P(9.0) software. Dual Messenger allows installation of an arbitrary APK with resultant privileged code execution. The Samsung ID is SVE-2018-13299 (December 2018).

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

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: 0.006 (48.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 48th percentile — 48.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Google Android — versions 7.0, 7.1.0, 7.1.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-862 — Missing Authorization

References

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

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-21042?: CVE-2018-21042 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Google Android, classified under Missing Authorization. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-04-08.
How severe is CVE-2018-21042?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.