Guest privilege escalation via unchecked firmware pointers
Published Aug 21, 2026 · Updated Aug 25, 2026
Out-of-bounds access in Imagination Technologies Graphics DDK allows guest OS users to escalate privileges through improper GPU firmware commands. The rgxfw_to_ptr() routine accepts firmware-private data pointers from guest-controlled commands and translates them into addresses outside the guest's virtualized GPU memory. Kernel-level software inside a GPU-enabled guest VM is required; successful access permits cross-boundary memory reads or writes and privilege escalation.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds access in Imagination Technologies Graphics DDK allows guest OS users to escalate privileges through improper GPU firmware commands. The rgxfw_to_ptr() routine accepts firmware-private data pointers from guest-controlled commands and translates them into addresses outside the guest's virtualized GPU memory. Kernel-level software inside a GPU-enabled guest VM is required; successful access permits cross-boundary memory reads or writes and privilege escalation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-45199
- Published
- Aug 21, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 25, 2026
- Vendor
- Imagination Technologies
- Product
- Graphics DDK
- Classifications
- CWE-823, CAPEC-480, T1611
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 21, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=1.18 RTM2
- Affected versionversion=23.2 RTM2
- Affected versionversion=24.2 RTM2
- Affected versionversion=25.1 RTM2 <=25.3 RTM
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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