CVE-2021-28663

HIGHNVD 8.89.0▲
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 8.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 4 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
8.8
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS: 12%CVSS: 8.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows privilege escalation or information disclosure because GPU memory operations are mishandled, leading to a use-after-free. This affects Bifrost r0p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, Valhall r19p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, and Midgard r4p0 through r30p0.

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
9.0(high)
EG Risk
81(Attend)
EG Risk 81/100SSVC: Attend

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity90% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk.
EPSS
95.7%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

May 10, 2021

Last Modified

November 3, 2025

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Jun 2, 2026
⚠️ Active exploitation confirmed. Patch available. Sources: cisa.
cisa Patch Available🔴 Active Exploitation

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-28663
generic

GitHub - lntrx/CVE-2021-28663: A basic PoC leak for CVE-2021-28663 (Internal of the Android kernel backdoor vulnerability) · GitHub

https://github.com/lntrx/CVE-2021-28663
generic

Arm Product Security Center

https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/mali-gpu-kernel-driver
generic

Arm Product Security Center

https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 45× in last 7d / 218× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 429 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-23 01:59 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-22 21:51 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-22 21:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-07-22 19:40 UTCCISA KEV update
  8. 2026-07-22 17:39 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-22 17:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-22 13:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-07-22 09:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-22 05:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-07-22 00:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-07-21 20:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-07-21 16:22 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-07-21 16:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-21 14:37 UTCCISA KEV update
  22. 2026-07-21 12:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-07-21 07:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-07-21 03:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-07-20 23:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-20 19:23 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-20 19:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-20 15:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-07-20 10:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-07-20 06:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-07-20 02:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-07-19 22:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-07-19 17:57 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-19 17:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-19 13:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-07-19 09:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-19 05:20 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-07-19 05:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-19 01:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-07-18 20:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-07-18 16:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-07-18 12:29 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-07-18 12:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-18 08:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  26. 2026-07-18 04:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-07-17 23:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  28. 2026-07-17 19:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-07-17 15:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-07-17 11:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-07-17 07:05 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-07-17 07:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-07-17 02:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-07-16 22:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-07-16 18:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  37. 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-07-16 14:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
  39. 2026-07-16 10:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  40. 2026-07-16 05:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-07-16 01:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  42. 2026-07-15 21:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  43. 2026-07-15 17:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  44. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
  47. 2026-07-15 15:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  48. 2026-07-15 13:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
  49. 2026-07-15 08:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-07-15 04:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-07-15 00:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-07-14 20:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  54. 2026-07-14 18:05 UTCCISA KEV update
  55. 2026-07-14 15:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  56. 2026-07-14 11:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  57. 2026-07-14 07:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  58. 2026-07-14 03:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-07-13 22:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  60. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-07-13 18:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  63. 2026-07-13 17:07 UTCCISA KEV update
  64. 2026-07-13 14:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  65. 2026-07-13 10:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  67. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-07-13 01:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  69. 2026-07-12 21:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-07-12 17:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  71. 2026-07-12 13:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-07-12 09:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  73. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-07-12 04:56 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoClntrx/CVE-2021-28663
    First seen Sep 1, 2021

    A basic PoC leak for CVE-2021-28663 (Internal of the Android kernel backdoor vulnerability)

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2021-28663?
CVE-2021-28663 is a high vulnerability published on May 10, 2021. The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows privilege escalation or information disclosure because GPU memory operations are mishandled, leading to a use-after-free. This affects Bifrost r0p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, Valhall r19p0 through r28p0 before r29p0, and Midgard r4p0 through r30p0.
When was CVE-2021-28663 disclosed?
CVE-2021-28663 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on May 10, 2021, with the most recent update on November 3, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-28663 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2021-28663 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, affecting Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-28663?
CVE-2021-28663 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 9.0.
Which products are affected by CVE-2021-28663?
CVE-2021-28663 affects Arm Mali Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The full affected-products list, including version ranges and fixed versions, is shown in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2021-28663?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-28663, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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