CWE-925 Improper Verification of Intent by Broadcast Receiver

The Android application uses a Broadcast Receiver that receives an Intent but does not properly verify that the Intent came from an authorized source.

Certain types of Intents, identified by action string, can only be broadcast by the operating system itself, not by third-party applications. However, when an application registers to receive these implicit system intents, it is also registered to receive any explicit intents. While a malicious application cannot send an implicit system intent, it can send an explicit intent to the target application, which may assume that any received intent is a valid implicit system intent and not an explicit intent from another application.

• Integrity: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity — Another application can impersonate the operating system and cause the software to perform an unintended action.

• [Architecture and Design] Before acting on the Intent, check the Intent Action to make sure it matches the expected System action.

• Automated Static Analysis: Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

• CVE-2025-20972: Mobile app store does not properly verify the intent by the broadcast receiver, allowing local attackers to write arbitrary files • CVE-2024-10576: Mobile device has an application that exposes a broadcast received that allows local attackers to force a factory reset