CVE-2021-44828
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedArm Mali GPU Kernel Driver (Midgard r26p0 through r30p0, Bifrost r0p0 through r34p0, and Valhall r19p0 through r34p0) allows a non-privileged user to achieve write access to read-only memory, and possibly obtain root privileges, corrupt memory, and modify the memory of other processes.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceArm Mali GPU Kernel Driver vulnerability allows non-privileged users to write to read-only memory, potentially achieving root privileges, corrupting memory, and modifying other processes' memory across Midgard (r26p0-r30p0), Bifrost (r0p0-r34p0), and Valhall (r19p0-r34p0) architectures.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data>= r0p0, <= r34p0>= r26p0, <= r30p0>= r19p0, <= r34p0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if Mali GPU kernel driver is loadedRun 'lsmod | grep -i mali' or check /proc/modules for mali, bifrost, midgard, or valhall modulesAffected if No Mali-related kernel modules are found - the driver is not in use on this system
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Retrieve the driver versionUse 'modinfo <mali_module_name>' and look for the 'version' or 'srcversion' field, or check /sys/module/<mali_module>/versionAffected if The displayed version falls within r26p0-r30p0 for Midgard, r0p0-r34p0 for Bifrost, or r19p0-r34p0 for Valhall architectures
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Confirm the GPU architecture familyExamine the module name or /sys/class/misc/mali0/device/name to determine if the driver is Midgard, Bifrost, or Valhall variantAffected if The architecture matches Midgard, Bifrost, or Valhall AND the version is within the vulnerable ranges for that architecture
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Check for untrusted local usersReview /etc/passwd for non-privileged user accounts or check sudo group membership with 'getent group sudo'Affected if The system permits local untrusted user accounts, increasing the exploitability of this privilege escalation flaw
A system is affected if it runs an Arm Mali GPU kernel driver module whose version, when matched to its architecture (Midgard, Bifrost, or Valhall), falls within the specified vulnerable version ranges and permits local untrusted user access.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate Mali GPU kernel drivers to versions beyond r34p0 for Valhall and r30p0 for Midgard, or the latest patched releases for Bifrost. Prioritize systems where untrusted users have local access.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-44828 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-44828 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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