Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2021-28663

Mali GPU kernel driver Privilege Escalation

Arm / Mali GPU kernel driver · 0 to <= r28p0

Watch CVE-2021-28663 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 8.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
12.1%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2021-28663 is a vulnerability affecting Arm Mali GPU kernel driver. The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows privilege escalation or information disclosure because GPU memory operations are mishandled, leading to a...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Arm / Mali GPU kernel driver 0 to <= r28p0.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Mali GPU kernel driver Privilege Escalation

The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows privilege escalation or information disclosure because GPU memory operations are mishandled, leading to a use-after-free.

This affects Bifrost r0p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, Valhall r19p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, and Midgard r4p0 through r30p0.

arm Affected
bifrost_gpu_kernel_driver
Through r28p0
arm Affected
valhall_gpu_kernel_driver
Through r28p0
arm Affected
midgard_gpu_kernel_driver
Through r30p0
Published
10 May 2021
Exploitation Reported
03 Nov 2021
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 01 Sep 2021

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
CISA First 2021-11-03 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

8.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

12.1%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Use After Free CWE-416

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 8.8 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 9.0 High

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

lntrx/CVE-2021-28663

github · Created 2021-09-01 22:59:29 UTC · 121 stars · AI assessment 90%

A basic PoC leak for CVE-2021-28663 (Internal of the Android kernel backdoor vulnerability)

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  2. 22:59 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 00:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2021-28663

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2021-28663",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 8.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.12084,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}