Android EUVD-2026-73956

Exploitation requires a malicious application to be installed on the target Android device with at minimum low-level (PR:L) permissions - standard for any installed app. The attack targets the AppRestrictionsFragment component of the Android Settings application, which is present on all affected Android versions (14, 15, 16, 16-QPR2, 17). No user interaction is required after installation. The confused deputy condition exists regardless of whether app restrictions are actively configured by the user. What limits exploitation: the attacker must achieve local code execution or app installation on the device (AV:L), ruling out purely remote network attacks; the scope does not change (S:U), so lateral movement to other device partitions beyond the accessible file system requires chaining additional vulnerabilities.

CVSS 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) accurately reflects the local, low-complexity nature of this flaw. The attack requires a locally installed app with at minimum basic (PR:L) permissions - it cannot be triggered remotely, which limits its real-world blast radius compared to network-facing RCEs. However, the breadth of affected versions (Android 14 through 17, including the current LTS-equivalent releases) and the lack of required user interaction (UI:N) make this a meaningful risk on any unpatched Android device. EPSS at 0.11% (2nd percentile) indicates no observed widespread exploitation at time of analysis, and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA KEV. Real-world risk is elevated primarily for enterprise Android deployments using app restrictions/MDM profiles, where AppRestrictionsFragment is more likely to be in an exploitable state. No conflicting signals between CVSS and description - the local vector is consistent with a Settings-level confused deputy.

An attacker distributes a malicious Android app (via sideloading or a compromised app store) targeting an Android 14-17 device. Once installed with only basic permissions, the app invokes the AppRestrictionsFragment confused deputy without any user interaction, coercing the privileged Settings process to read or write private files belonging to other applications or the system. This allows the attacker to exfiltrate sensitive application data or overwrite files to achieve persistent privilege escalation.