# CVE-2016-7989: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Samsung Galaxy devices via malformed SMS, requiring a factory reset to restore functionality.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 31 Oct 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-q993-v9x4-3q2m

## What is CVE-2016-7989?

CVE-2016-7989 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Google Android, published on 31 Oct 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On Samsung Galaxy S4 through S7 devices, a malformed OTA WAP PUSH SMS containing an OMACP message sent remotely triggers an unhandled ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in Samsung's implementation of the WifiServiceImpl class within wifi-service.jar. This causes the Android runtime to continually crash, rendering the device unusable until a factory reset is performed, a subset of SVE-2016-6542.

Weakness: CWE-254

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-7989?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Google Android.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-7989?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-7989 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-7989 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7989 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Google Android

- [CVE-2026-58704](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-58704/): Google Pixel Improper Authorization (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-48543](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-48543/): Android Runtime Use-After-Free (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-35674](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35674/): Android Framework Privilege Escalation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-48595](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-48595/): Android Framework Integer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-32896](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-32896/): Android Pixel Privilege Escalation (high 8.1, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-7989 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-7989 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Google Android, published on 31 Oct 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7989 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Google Android. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7989/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7989/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-7989
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-7989
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-7989

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7989/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.