Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU): vulnerability flaw under attack

What is affected

Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver contains an unspecified vulnerability that allows a non-privileged user to achieve write access to read-only memory pages.

What an attacker can do

This is a vulnerability flaw. It lets an attacker misuse the product in a way its maker did not intend. CISA lists it because attackers are confirmed to be using it against real systems.

How it is reached

Needs access to the device or a file opened on it

Access the attacker needs

A basic user account

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• developer.arm.comdeveloper.arm.com/Arm%20Security%20Center/Mali%20GPU%20Driver%20Vulnerabilities

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on March 30, 2023, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by April 20, 2023, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 1.1% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 64% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.8 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver allows a non-privileged user to achieve write access to read-only memory pages. This affects Midgard r26p0 through r31p0, Bifrost r0p0 through r35p0, and Valhall r19p0 through r35p0.