CVE-2023-4272
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 · uneditedA local non-privileged user can make GPU processing operations that expose sensitive data from previously freed memory.
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 confidenceThis is a use-after-free vulnerability in GPU processing operations where a local non-privileged user can trigger GPU operations that access memory that has already been freed, potentially exposing sensitive data from previously allocated memory objects.
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, <= r41p0= r41p0>= r8p0, <= r32p0>= r19p0, <= r41p0CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 an Arm Mali GPU kernel driver is loadedRun 'lsmod | grep -i mali' or 'lsmod | grep -i arm' to list loaded kernel modules related to Arm GPU drivers. Also check 'dmesg' for Mali GPU initialization messages.Affected if No Mali-related modules appear in lsmod output, meaning the vulnerable driver is not loaded.
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Determine the exact Arm GPU driver versionCheck system files or utilities that expose the Mali/Bifrost/Midgard/Valhall driver version. On Linux, common paths include /sys/class/misc/mali0/device/version, /proc/gpuinfo, or via 'cat /sys/module/mali_kbase/version'. Use the method appropriate for your system.Affected if The driver version cannot be determined or the system does not have Arm Mali GPU drivers.
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Compare your installed version against affected rangesMatch the identified driver version to these ranges: Bifrost (r0p0 through r41p0), Mali (r41p0 exactly), Midgard (r8p0 through r32p0), Valhall (r19p0 through r41p0). Note that version r41p0 appears across multiple families.Affected if Your driver version falls within any of these ranges: Bifrost r0p0-r41p0, Mali r41p0, Midgard r8p0-r32p0, or Valhall r19p0-r41p0.
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Verify GPU processing operations are accessible to local usersConfirm that non-privileged users can trigger GPU operations on the system. This may involve checking /dev/mali* or /dev/dri/* device permissions, or verifying user access to GPU compute capabilities.Affected if Local users have direct access to GPU device nodes and can invoke GPU operations without elevated privileges.
Your environment is affected if an Arm Mali/Bifrost/Midgard/Valhall GPU kernel driver is loaded and its version falls within the affected ranges listed above.
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 dataApply vendor-provided patches or updated GPU drivers that address the use-after-free condition in GPU processing code paths.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,160.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-4272 — 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-2023-4272 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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