What is CVE-2026-22112?
A protection mechanism failure vulnerability exists in the Google Pixel bootloader for Pixel 7, 8, and 9 series devices. A flaw in the secure boot verification chain allows an attacker with root-level access to bypass bootloader integrity checks and install persistent implant code that survives factory resets and OS re-installations. The vulnerability resides in the bootloader firmware signature validation logic, where a crafted payload can be written to a persistent partition that is not cleared during device wipe operations. Google TAG identified this as Stage 3 of the Saito Tech (formerly Candiru) commercial spyware exploit chain, used after CVE-2026-22104 (RCE) and CVE-2026-22107 (LPE) to establish hardware-level persistence on targeted devices belonging to journalists and political dissidents.
The record classifies CVE-2026-22112 under weakness class CWE-693. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs high-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity. 10 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 254 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 7.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N - EPSS (FIRST)
- 43.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93.8% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Threadlinqs priority
- 7.7/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- Published
- 2026-02-20, last modified 2026-03-05
Is CVE-2026-22112 being exploited?
It currently carries a trending score of 28 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
Affected products and versions
- Google: Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold
How to fix CVE-2026-22112
The record marks a vendor fix as available for CVE-2026-22112. Patch reference: https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/pixel/2026/2026-03-01. Vendor advisory: https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/pixel/2026/2026-03-01. 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-2026-22112
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2026-22112, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
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.