CVE-2022-38181
Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver Use-After-Free Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 20 April 2023). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows unprivileged users to access freed memory because GPU memory operations are mishandled. This affects Bifrost r0p0 through r38p1, and r39p0; Valhall r19p0 through r38p1, and r39p0; and Midgard r4p0 through r32p0.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 18.46% probability · 97th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Listed 30 March 2023 · due 20 April 2023
- Weakness
- CWE-416
- Affected
- arm/bifrost gpu kernel driver · arm/midgard gpu kernel driver · arm/valhall gpu kernel driver
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS moved from 18.5% on 22 October 2026 to 18.5% on 30 October 2026. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”.
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://developer.arm.com/Arm%20Security%20Center/Mali%20GPU%20Driver%20Vulnerabilities; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-38181
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172854/Android-Arm-Mali-GPU-Arbitrary-Code-Execution.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://developer.arm.com/Arm%20Security%20Center/Mali%20GPU%20Driver%20VulnerabilitiesVendor Advisory
- https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updatesVendor Advisory
- https://github.blog/2023-01-23-pwning-the-all-google-phone-with-a-non-google-bug/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2022-054_Arm_Mali/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/172854/Android-Arm-Mali-GPU-Arbitrary-Code-Execution.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://developer.arm.com/Arm%20Security%20Center/Mali%20GPU%20Driver%20VulnerabilitiesVendor Advisory
- https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updatesVendor Advisory
- https://github.blog/2023-01-23-pwning-the-all-google-phone-with-a-non-google-bug/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2022-054_Arm_Mali/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-38181US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.