CVE-2025-58341: Samsung Exynos 980 Firmware DoS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-58341 Overview

A memory exhaustion vulnerability has been discovered in the Wi-Fi driver used across multiple Samsung Mobile and Wearable Processor Exynos chipsets. The vulnerability exists in the handling of write operations to the /proc/driver/unifi0/ap_cert_disable_ht_vht interface, where unbounded memory allocation can occur when processing a large buffer. This flaw allows a local attacker to trigger kernel memory exhaustion, resulting in a denial of service condition on affected devices.

Critical Impact

Local attackers can exhaust kernel memory through crafted write operations to the Wi-Fi driver procfs interface, potentially rendering Samsung mobile and wearable devices unresponsive.

Affected Products

• Samsung Exynos 980 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 850 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1080 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1280 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1330 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1380 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1480 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos 1580 (Mobile Processor)
• Samsung Exynos W920 (Wearable Processor)
• Samsung Exynos W930 (Wearable Processor)
• Samsung Exynos W1000 (Wearable Processor)

Discovery Timeline

• February 3, 2026 - CVE-2025-58341 published to NVD
• February 5, 2026 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-58341

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling). The Wi-Fi driver in affected Samsung Exynos processors fails to properly validate the size of input buffers before allocating kernel memory. When a write operation is performed to the /proc/driver/unifi0/ap_cert_disable_ht_vht procfs entry, the driver accepts arbitrarily large buffer sizes without imposing appropriate limits on memory allocation.

The attack requires local access to the device, making it exploitable by malicious applications running on the device or through direct device access. While no authentication is required to trigger the vulnerability, the local access vector limits the attack surface compared to remotely exploitable flaws. The primary impact is on system availability, as successful exploitation leads to kernel memory exhaustion without compromising data confidentiality or integrity.

Root Cause

The root cause lies in the Wi-Fi driver's failure to implement proper bounds checking and resource limits when handling write operations to the procfs interface. The ap_cert_disable_ht_vht write handler does not validate the input buffer size before performing memory allocation, allowing an attacker to request allocation of an arbitrarily large memory block. This unbounded allocation behavior violates secure coding practices for kernel-space memory management.

Attack Vector

The attack is performed locally through the procfs filesystem interface. An attacker with the ability to write to /proc/driver/unifi0/ap_cert_disable_ht_vht can craft a write operation with an excessively large buffer size. When the vulnerable driver processes this request, it attempts to allocate kernel memory proportional to the attacker-controlled buffer size without enforcing reasonable limits. Repeated exploitation or a single sufficiently large allocation request can exhaust available kernel memory, causing system instability, application crashes, or a complete denial of service requiring device reboot.

The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be triggered programmatically by any process with write access to the affected procfs entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-58341

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual memory consumption patterns in kernel space, particularly associated with Wi-Fi driver operations
• System instability or unresponsiveness following suspicious write activity to procfs entries
• Kernel out-of-memory (OOM) killer activations without corresponding legitimate high-memory workloads
• Abnormal process behavior attempting repeated writes to /proc/driver/unifi0/ap_cert_disable_ht_vht

Detection Strategies

• Monitor system logs for kernel memory allocation failures and OOM events correlated with Wi-Fi driver activity
• Implement file access monitoring on procfs entries related to the Unifi Wi-Fi driver
• Deploy endpoint detection rules to identify applications making suspicious large write operations to driver interfaces
• Review installed applications for permissions or behaviors consistent with procfs manipulation

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable kernel logging and audit frameworks to capture write operations to sensitive procfs entries
• Monitor for anomalous memory allocation patterns using system performance monitoring tools
• Implement SentinelOne Singularity platform for behavioral detection of resource exhaustion attacks
• Alert on repeated device reboots or system crashes that may indicate active exploitation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-58341

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply the latest firmware updates from Samsung for all affected Exynos processors
• Restrict installation of applications from untrusted sources to reduce local attack surface
• Review and remove any suspicious applications that may attempt to exploit kernel driver vulnerabilities
• Consider enabling additional access controls if available through device management solutions

Patch Information

Samsung has released security updates addressing this vulnerability. Device manufacturers using affected Exynos processors should integrate the patched Wi-Fi driver firmware into their device updates. End users should ensure their devices are updated to the latest available firmware version.

For detailed patch information, refer to the Samsung Product Security Updates page and the Samsung CVE-2025-58341 Details advisory.

Workarounds

• Limit physical access to affected devices to prevent local exploitation
• Implement mobile device management (MDM) policies to restrict application installation from unknown sources
• Monitor devices for signs of resource exhaustion and investigate unusual system behavior
• Isolate devices that cannot be immediately patched from sensitive environments until updates can be applied

# Check device firmware version (Android devices)
adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint
adb shell getprop ro.hardware.chipname

# Monitor kernel memory status for anomalies
adb shell cat /proc/meminfo | grep -E "(MemFree|MemAvailable|Slab)"