Threats / Arm / CVE-2021-29256
CVE-2021-29256
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) vulnerability
Use-after-free vulnerability in Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows non-privileged users to escalate privileges to root or disclose sensitive information.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A use-after-free flaw in the Mali GPU driver enables local privilege escalation and information disclosure. The vulnerability has been observed in active exploitation, though no ransomware campaigns are attributed to it.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-07-074EPSS 0.0302 (verify live)5CVSS 8.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
2 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 2023-07-07).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.0302 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 8.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Arm, Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-416 Use After Free — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 774 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
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 gain code execution in the GPU driver context by triggering a use-after-free condition through crafted GPU operations.
Business
An attacker obtains kernel-level code execution on systems running vulnerable Mali GPU drivers.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I escalate from my unprivileged user context to root by exploiting the freed memory region to corrupt kernel state.
Business
Complete system compromise occurs as the attacker gains root access without requiring initial elevated privileges.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I read sensitive kernel memory and process data by accessing the use-after-free buffer before it is reallocated.
Business
Confidential data including cryptographic keys, credentials, and user information becomes accessible to the attacker.
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