Threat Intelligence / CVE / CVE-2021-1048

CVE-2021-1048 — Google Android

CISA KEV

CVSS v3.1 7.8 (HIGH) · EPSS 1.2% (higher than 79.3% of all scored CVEs) · Priority 9/10 · Published 2021-12-15

As of 2025-10-23, CVE-2021-1048 is a HIGH-severity vulnerability in Google Android, CVSS v3.1 7.8, EPSS 1.2% (79.3th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-05-23), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2022-06-13. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 1 tracked threat campaign to CVE-2021-1048, most recently “Hack-for-Hire Espionage Campaign Targeting MENA Civil Society via Predator/Intellexa Mercenary Spyware”.

Last updated: 2025-10-23

What is CVE-2021-1048?

In ep_loop_check_proc of eventpoll.c, there is a possible way to corrupt memory due to a use after free. This could lead to local escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.

The record classifies CVE-2021-1048 under weakness class CWE-416. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 1733 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score: 7.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS (FIRST): 1.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 79.3% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV: Listed since 2022-05-23, federal remediation deadline 2022-06-13
Threadlinqs priority: 9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
Published: 2021-12-15, last modified 2025-10-23

Is CVE-2021-1048 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2021-1048 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-05-23, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2022-06-13 under BOD 22-01. It currently carries a trending score of 35 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

Google: Android

How to fix CVE-2021-1048

The record marks a vendor fix as available for CVE-2021-1048. Vendor advisory: https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2021-11-01. Because CVE-2021-1048 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2022-06-13. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2021-1048

1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2021-1048, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

Hack-for-Hire Espionage Campaign Targeting MENA Civil Society via Predator/Intellexa Mercenary Spyware — HIGH · 2026-04-08

Sources

Seeded from nvd and not yet processed by the Threadlinqs enrichment pipeline, so blank CVSS, EPSS or KEV fields above mean NOT MEASURED rather than measured-absent.

Full detection coverage & IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2021-1048 are available via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier). View plans →

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