Introduction
Remote attackers can take control of Samsung Galaxy devices by exploiting a flaw in the image processing pipeline. CVE-2025-21042 enables arbitrary code execution via a single malicious image file, affecting millions of users who rely on Samsung's proprietary image codec libraries.
Samsung Electronics is the largest smartphone manufacturer globally, with its Galaxy series deployed in both consumer and enterprise environments. The affected component, libimagecodec.quram.so, is a proprietary image processing library developed by Quramsoft and deeply integrated into Samsung's Android stack since at least 2014. Previous vulnerabilities in these libraries have had significant security implications for the mobile ecosystem.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-21042 is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the libimagecodec.quram.so library. This library is responsible for parsing and decoding various image formats on Samsung Galaxy devices. The vulnerability is triggered when the library processes a specially crafted image file, resulting in a write operation that occurs outside the bounds of allocated memory.
The root cause is insufficient bounds checking during image parsing. When a malicious image is processed, attacker-controlled data can overwrite adjacent memory regions, leading to memory corruption. This allows for arbitrary code execution in the context of the image processing service or application.
The attack vector is fully remote. Exploitation can occur through any channel that causes the device to process an attacker-supplied image, such as email attachments, messaging apps, or web browsing. The vulnerability is particularly severe because image processing is often triggered automatically by system services or third-party apps, requiring minimal user interaction.
Historical research into Samsung's Quram-based codecs (see CVE-2020-8899) has shown a pattern of memory safety issues, including buffer overflows and other forms of memory corruption. These issues stem from insecure memory management practices in native code, especially when handling untrusted input data.
Affected Systems and Versions
- All Samsung Galaxy devices running firmware versions prior to the April 2025 Security Maintenance Release (SMR Apr-2025 Release 1) are affected.
- The vulnerable component is
libimagecodec.quram.so. - Devices receiving the April 2025 SMR or later are not affected.
- The vulnerability is present regardless of device configuration, as the library is used system-wide for image parsing.
Vendor Security History
- Samsung's proprietary image codecs developed by Quramsoft have been the subject of multiple memory safety vulnerabilities, including CVE-2020-8899 (buffer overflows in Qmage codec).
- Samsung typically issues monthly Security Maintenance Releases to address vulnerabilities, but there can be delays between patch deployment and public CVE assignment.
- Samsung collaborates with external researchers and has previously open-sourced fuzzing tools for testing image codecs.