What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-29256?

CVE-2021-29256 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 (High). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. EPSS exploitation probability: 3.0%.

Is CVE-2021-29256 being actively exploited?

Yes, CVE-2021-29256 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, confirming active in-the-wild exploitation. Immediate patching is required.

Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver CVE-2021-29256

HIGH

Use After Free (CWE-416)

2021-05-24 cve@mitre.org

Privilege Escalation Information Disclosure Use After Free Memory Corruption Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver Valhall Gpu Kernel Driver Midgard Gpu Kernel Driver Arm

8.8

CVSS 3.1 · NVD

View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness	CWE CWE-416 ASVS 5.0 V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Memory lifecycle management MITRE ATT&CK 2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. Sign in to read
Impact	CVSS score of 8.8 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction not required.
Exploit ScenarioDerived	A remote attacker could access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application by sending crafted requests to the affected application.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: Active threat signals + CRITICAL/HIGH severity.

Exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) No patch listed yet 3.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAI

. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Use smart pointers or garbage-collected languages. Set pointers to NULL after freeing. Enable memory sanitizers.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Use After Free (CWE-416), which allows attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application. . The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows an unprivileged user to achieve access to freed memory, leading to information disclosure or root privilege escalation. This affects Bifrost r16p0 through r29p0 before r30p0, Valhall r19p0 through r29p0 before r30p0, and Midgard r28p0 through r30p0. Affected products include: Arm Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver, Arm Midgard Gpu Kernel Driver, Arm Valhall Gpu Kernel Driver.

Know when Bifrost Gpu Kernel Driver gets its next vulnerability

Watch products and get an email when something new is published
Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

Continue with Google Continue with GitHub

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 8.8 HIGH

AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Lifecycle Timeline

Added to CISA KEV

Jul 14, 2026 - 04:22 CISA

CVE Published

May 24, 2021 - 18:15 nvd

HIGH 8.8

DescriptionNVD

. The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows an unprivileged user to achieve access to freed memory, leading to information disclosure or root privilege escalation. This affects Bifrost r16p0 through r29p0 before r30p0, Valhall r19p0 through r29p0 before r30p0, and Midgard r28p0 through r30p0.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score

3.0%

Top 14% exploitable

Data Quality

2 sources

Confidence: Low

NVD

CVE.org

CISA KEV

EPSS

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue

Severity HIGH

CISA KEV Yes

Public POC No

EPSS 3.0%

Patch available No

Active threat Yes

Deciding rule

Active threat signals + CRITICAL/HIGH severity

What every action level means

Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.

Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived

Out-of-Cycle

Exploitation· derived

Active

System Exposure· derived

Open

Automatable· derived

Human Impact· derived

High

Priority Score

Low Medium High Critical

KEV: +50

EPSS: +3

CVSS: +44

PoC: 0

Weaponized: 0

Threat intel: 0

Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Privilege Escalation HIGH

Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.

Use After Free HIGH

Use-after-free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to access memory through a pointer after that memory has been deallocated.

Memory Corruption HIGH

Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.

Information Disclosure MEDIUM

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.