CVE-2026-12285 in Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver
Summary
by MITRE • 09/08/2026
Use After Free vulnerability in Arm Ltd Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver, Arm Ltd Valhall GPU Kernel Driver, Arm Ltd Arm 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver allows a local non-privileged user process to perform valid GPU memory processing operations to access already freed memory.
This issue affects Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver: from r41p0 through r49p5, from r50p0 through r51p0, from r54p1 through r54p2; Valhall GPU Kernel Driver: from r41p0 through r49p5, from r50p0 through r54p3, r55p0; Arm 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver: from r41p0 through r49p5, from r50p0 through r54p3, r55p0.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/08/2026
The identified vulnerability represents a critical use-after-free condition within the kernel drivers for Arm’s Bifrost, Valhall, and 5th Generation GPU architectures. This flaw allows a local non-privileged user process to exploit improper memory management logic by performing valid GPU memory processing operations that target memory regions which have already been deallocated or freed by the system. In modern computing environments, particularly those utilizing mobile SoCs based on Arm’s Mali GPUs, the kernel driver serves as the critical interface between user-space applications and the hardware execution units. When a process requests memory allocation for rendering tasks or compute shaders, the driver manages these resources through complex state machines and buffer objects. The vulnerability arises when the driver fails to properly validate whether a specific memory address remains valid before allowing GPU operations to proceed against it. This lapse in validation permits the processor to read from or write to memory locations that are no longer under the control of the requesting process, effectively bypassing standard isolation boundaries enforced by the operating system kernel.
From a technical perspective, this flaw aligns with CWE-416, Use After Free, which is categorized as a high-severity defect due to its potential for arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation. The operational impact is severe because an attacker can leverage this condition to corrupt heap metadata or overwrite adjacent data structures within the kernel space. By carefully crafting memory allocations and deallocations, a malicious actor can control what content resides in the freed memory region before triggering the GPU operation. This scenario enables the overwriting of function pointers, return addresses, or security-critical flags with attacker-controlled values. Consequently, this leads to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the kernel process, typically root level on Linux-based systems running these drivers. The ability to execute code in ring 0 grants full control over the device, allowing for complete system compromise, data exfiltration, and persistence mechanisms that are difficult to detect using standard endpoint security tools.
The affected software versions span multiple release cycles of Arm’s GPU kernel drivers, indicating a systemic issue within the memory management subsystem across different architectural generations including Bifrost, Valhall, and the 5th Gen architecture. The range from r41p0 through r54p3 for certain variants suggests that this vulnerability has persisted or re-emerged in various iterations of the driver codebase over several years. This widespread impact affects a significant portion of mobile devices, embedded systems, and IoT devices powered by Arm Mali GPUs. Attackers targeting these platforms can achieve remote code execution if combined with other vulnerabilities such as web browser exploits or malicious application installations that require only local access to trigger the GPU operations. The persistence of this flaw highlights challenges in maintaining rigorous memory safety guarantees within complex driver implementations where manual memory management is still prevalent despite modern best practices favoring safer abstractions.
Mitigation strategies must focus on both immediate patching and long-term architectural improvements. Device manufacturers and OS vendors should prioritize applying the latest security patches provided by Arm that address this specific use-after-free condition in the affected driver versions. For systems where updates are not immediately available, runtime mitigation techniques such as Kernel Address Space Layout Randomization (KASLR) can reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation by making it harder for attackers to predict memory addresses required for reliable code execution. Additionally, enabling hardware-based isolation features like ARM TrustZone or IOMMU protections can limit the blast radius if an exploit is attempted. From a development standpoint, integrating static analysis tools and fuzzing frameworks specifically designed to detect use-after-free conditions during the driver testing phase is essential. Adopting memory-safe programming languages for new driver components or enforcing strict reference counting mechanisms with atomic operations in existing C codebases will help prevent similar defects from being introduced into future releases of Arm GPU drivers.