Cyber Resilience

CVE-2022-22706

Memory Safety in Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver r0p0 – r36p0

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedMemory Safety
Published
03 March 2022
Modified
03 November 2025
KEV Added
30 March 2023
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.011 63th percentile
Risk Priority 83 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2022-22706 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked in the top 37% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2022-22706 is a vulnerability in the Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver that permits a non-privileged user to gain write access to read-only memory pages. It affects Midgard GPU kernel drivers from r26p0 through r31p0, Bifrost drivers from r0p0 through r35p0, and Valhall drivers from r19p0 through r35p0. The flaw carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 and is categorized under CWE-119.

A local attacker with a low-privileged account on an affected system can exploit the issue to corrupt memory protections, potentially leading to full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts without user interaction.

Arm has published security updates addressing the Mali GPU kernel driver on its developer portal, and administrators should apply the vendor-supplied patches for the listed GPU families. The vulnerability also appears in CISA’s catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities.

EPSS for the CVE rose sharply from a low baseline to a peak of 0.8356 on 2023-07-05 before receding to its current value of 0.0009, indicating a period of heightened post-disclosure exploitation interest that warrants renewed attention.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver allows a non-privileged user to achieve write access to read-only memory pages. This affects Midgard r26p0 through r31p0, Bifrost r0p0 through r35p0, and Valhall r19p0 through r35p0.

CWE(s)
CWE-119
KEV Date Added
30 March 2023

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2021-29256Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2021-28663Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2022-38181Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2021-28664Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2023-4211Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2024-4610Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2023-26083Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driverboth on KEV
CVE-2023-6143Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver
CVE-2023-6241Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver
CVE-2024-0671Same product: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver

Affected Assets

arm
bifrost gpu kernel driver
r0p0 — r36p0
arm
midgard gpu kernel driver
r26p0 — r32p0
arm
valhall gpu kernel driver
r19p0 — r36p0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation
addresses: CWE-119

Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.

SC-27 Platform-independent Applications
addresses: CWE-119

Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.

SI-16 Memory Protection
addresses: CWE-119

Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.

SI-4 System Monitoring
addresses: CWE-119

Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References