CVE-2016-6526 Samsung CVE debrief

Who should care

Samsung Note device owners and administrators, mobile device management teams, and security teams responsible for Samsung Android devices running L (5.0/5.1) or M (6.0).

Technical summary

The NVD record maps this issue to Samsung mobile software versions 5.0, 5.1, and 6.0. The vulnerable component is the Telecom application’s SpamCall Activity, and the described trigger is a malformed serializable object. Impact in the supplied record is denial of service (crash/reboot) with a possibility of privilege gain; NVD also classifies the weakness under CWE-264 and gives a CVSS 3.0 vector of AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Defensive priority

High. The CVSS score is 7.8 (HIGH), and the described impact includes device instability plus possible privilege impact on affected Samsung devices.

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply Samsung security updates or firmware that address the issue, using the Samsung SMR-AUG-2016 advisory reference as the vendor guidance anchor.
• Inventory Samsung Note devices running Android 5.0, 5.1, or 6.0 and confirm whether they are still in service.
• Prioritize patching for managed devices and remove or isolate unsupported devices that cannot receive security updates.
• Monitor affected fleets for unexpected Telecom app crashes, reboot loops, or repeated instability consistent with this issue.
• Use the official NVD and CVE records to confirm remediation status before closing the finding.

Evidence notes

All substantive claims here come from the supplied CVE description and NVD metadata. The record states Samsung Note device L (5.0/5.1) and M (6.0) exposure, Telecom application SpamCall Activity involvement, crash/reboot denial-of-service impact, and possible privilege gain via malformed serializable object. NVD lists CVSS v3.0 7.8 HIGH with vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, and the CVE references Samsung SMR-AUG-2016 as a vendor advisory. The CVE record was published on 2017-01-18 and later modified on 2026-05-13; the modification date is record metadata, not the vulnerability date.

Official resources