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. This may lead to unintended behavior.

Primary

Intent Spoofing

Architecture and Design

Integrity
Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Another application can impersonate the operating system and cause the software to perform an unintended 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.)
High

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

The following example demonstrates the weakness.

<manifest package="com.example.vulnerableApplication">
<application>
...

<receiver android:name=".ShutdownReceiver"><intent-filter><action android:name="android.intent.action.ACTION_SHUTDOWN" /></intent-filter></receiver>

...

</application>
</manifest>

The ShutdownReceiver class will handle the intent:

...
IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(Intent.ACTION_SHUTDOWN);BroadcastReceiver sReceiver = new ShutDownReceiver();registerReceiver(sReceiver, filter);
...

public class ShutdownReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {@Overridepublic void onReceive(final Context context, final Intent intent) {mainActivity.saveLocalData();mainActivity.stopActivity();}}

Because the method does not confirm that the intent action is the expected system intent, any received intent will trigger the shutdown procedure, as shown here:

window.location = examplescheme://method?parameter=value

An attacker can use this behavior to cause a denial of service.

Allowed
This CWE entry is at the Variant level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

This entry will be made more comprehensive in later CWE versions.

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2013-06-24
2.5
2013-07-17

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2014-02-18
updated Alternate_Terms, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, References

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2017-11-08
updated Demonstrative_Examples

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2019-01-03
updated Related_Attack_Patterns

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-02-24
updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-10-13
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Detection_Factors, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-12-11
4.19
2025-12-11
updated Weakness_Ordinalities