Root escalation via stale JIT-memory reference
Published Oct 25, 2022 · Updated Oct 21, 2025
Use-after-free in affected Arm Mali GPU kernel drivers allows local users to gain root privileges or disclose kernel memory. The evictable JIT-memory reclaim path frees a kbase_va_region without clearing its jit_alloc reference, which kbase_jit_free later dereferences. An untrusted local app can drive the GPU ioctls and memory pressure needed to reuse freed pages, enabling kernel code execution without prior elevated privileges.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in affected Arm Mali GPU kernel drivers allows local users to gain root privileges or disclose kernel memory. The evictable JIT-memory reclaim path frees a kbase_va_region without clearing its jit_alloc reference, which kbase_jit_free later dereferences. An untrusted local app can drive the GPU ioctls and memory pressure needed to reuse freed pages, enabling kernel code execution without prior elevated privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-38181
- Published
- Oct 25, 2022
- Updated
- Oct 21, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1404, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 25, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 21, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- GitHub Security Lab Pixel 6 exploitweaponized · demonstrated
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Reported exploitation
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities listingknown exploited catalog
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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