CVE-2016-3996 Samsung CVE debrief

Who should care

Samsung KNOX administrators, enterprise mobility teams, Android device fleet owners, and security teams responsible for managed Samsung devices should care most. Users or organizations that rely on KNOX clipboard protections are also affected because the issue exposes protected clipboard content to a local app.

Technical summary

NVD describes the issue as a caller-validation failure in ClipboardDataMgr that permits a local attacker, via a crafted application, to read KNOX clipboard data. The vulnerability is mapped to CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor). NVD marks Samsung KNOX 1.0.0 and 2.3.0 as vulnerable CPEs, and the public references include a Packet Storm advisory and a SecurityFocus archive entry.

Defensive priority

Medium. The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, but it can expose sensitive clipboard contents with high confidentiality impact.

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply Samsung security updates or move to a KNOX release that Samsung identifies as fixed.
• Audit managed devices for affected Samsung KNOX versions 1.0.0 and 2.3.0.
• Restrict installation of untrusted applications on devices that rely on KNOX protections.
• Review enterprise mobile-device policy controls for clipboard-sensitive workflows and protected data handling.
• Monitor endpoints for unexpected local app behavior that attempts to access protected clipboard content.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based on the official NVD record for CVE-2016-3996 and its listed references. NVD published the CVE on 2017-01-27 and later marked the record modified on 2026-05-13; that modification date reflects record maintenance, not the original issue date. The NVD entry identifies Samsung KNOX 1.0.0 and 2.3.0 as vulnerable and classifies the weakness as CWE-200. Public references in the record point to Packet Storm and SecurityFocus as third-party advisories.

Official resources