Threats / Arm / CVE-2023-4211
CVE-2023-4211
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver vulnerability
Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver contains a use-after-free vulnerability allowing local non-privileged users to access freed GPU memory through improper memory processing operations.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A use-after-free flaw in Mali GPU Kernel Driver enables local attackers without elevated privileges to manipulate GPU memory operations and read sensitive data from deallocated regions, with confirmed exploitation in the wild.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
6 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-10-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.01361 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Arm, Mali GPU Kernel Driver. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-416 Use After Free — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I execute code locally on a system with Mali GPU hardware to trigger improper GPU memory processing.
Business
Unauthorized local code execution capability expands attack surface for privilege escalation and data theft.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I craft GPU operations that reference memory regions already freed by the kernel driver.
Business
Memory safety violations in GPU drivers undermine system isolation and enable cross-process data leakage.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I read sensitive data from the freed memory regions accessible through GPU operations.
Business
Confidentiality breach of kernel memory, GPU buffers, or other process data stored in reallocated regions.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by ArmCNA
Credited with finding itMaddie Stone, Google Threat Analysis GroupfinderJann Horn, Google Project Zerofinder