What is CVE-2023-21456?

CVE-2023-21456 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Samsung Android, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 9.0/10. Published 2023-03-16.

How severe is CVE-2023-21456?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.0 out of 10.

Path Traversal in Samsung Android

CVE-2023-21456

Path traversal vulnerability in Galaxy Themes Service prior to SMR Mar-2023 Release 1 allows attacker to access arbitrary file with system uid.

Vulnerability class: Path Traversal (Directory Traversal)

Published 2023-03-16 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.0 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (10.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 11th percentile — 10.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Samsung Android — versions 11.0, 12.0, 13.0
Samsung Mobile Devices — versions Android 11, 12, 13

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-22 — Path Traversal

References

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

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-21456?: CVE-2023-21456 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Samsung Android, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 9.0/10. Published 2023-03-16.
How severe is CVE-2023-21456?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.0 out of 10.