CVE-2025-0427 is a high-severity Use After Free (UAF) vulnerability (CWE-416) found in the Arm Ltd Bifrost, Valhall, and Arm 5th Gen GPU Kernel Drivers. These drivers are part of the GPU kernel subsystem used in various Arm-based devices, including mobile phones, embedded systems, and potentially some server or edge computing platforms. The vulnerability arises when a local non-privileged user process performs legitimate GPU processing operations that inadvertently access memory regions that have already been freed. This improper memory handling can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, corruption of memory contents, and potential arbitrary code execution within the kernel context. The affected versions span multiple releases: Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver from r8p0 through r49p3 and r50p0 through r51p0; Valhall GPU Kernel Driver from r19p0 through r49p3 and r50p0 through r53p0; and Arm 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver from r41p0 through r49p3 and r50p0 through r53p0. The vulnerability requires local access with low privileges and no user interaction, making it a significant risk in multi-user environments or where untrusted code can run locally. The CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 reflects high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with low attack complexity and privileges required. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, but the potential for exploitation remains given the nature of the flaw and the widespread use of Arm GPUs. The lack of available patches at the time of publication increases the urgency for mitigation and monitoring. This vulnerability could be leveraged to escalate privileges, bypass security controls, or cause denial of service by crashing the GPU driver or the entire system kernel.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-0427 is significant, especially for those relying on Arm-based hardware platforms with affected GPU drivers. This includes sectors such as telecommunications (mobile network operators and device manufacturers), automotive (vehicles using Arm-based SoCs with GPU acceleration), industrial control systems, and consumer electronics manufacturers. Confidentiality breaches could expose sensitive corporate or personal data processed or cached in GPU memory. Integrity violations might allow attackers to manipulate computations or data visualizations, potentially undermining decision-making processes or safety-critical operations. Availability impacts could disrupt services by causing system crashes or instability, affecting business continuity. Organizations with multi-user environments or those allowing third-party applications to run locally on Arm-based devices are particularly at risk. The vulnerability could also be exploited in supply chain attacks targeting device firmware or software stacks. Given the increasing adoption of Arm architectures in edge computing and IoT devices across Europe, the threat surface is broad. Failure to address this vulnerability could lead to regulatory compliance issues under GDPR if personal data is compromised, as well as reputational damage and financial losses from operational disruptions.

To mitigate CVE-2025-0427 effectively, European organizations should: 1) Monitor Arm Ltd and device vendors for official patches or firmware updates addressing this vulnerability and prioritize their deployment as soon as available. 2) Implement strict access controls to limit local user privileges on devices with affected GPU drivers, minimizing the risk of unprivileged code triggering the vulnerability. 3) Employ application whitelisting and sandboxing techniques to restrict execution of untrusted or unnecessary local processes that could exploit the GPU driver. 4) Use kernel-level security features such as Kernel Address Space Layout Randomization (KASLR) and memory protection mechanisms to reduce exploitation success. 5) Conduct thorough inventory and asset management to identify all devices running affected Arm GPU drivers, including embedded and IoT devices, to ensure comprehensive coverage of mitigation efforts. 6) Monitor system logs and GPU driver behavior for anomalies indicative of exploitation attempts, such as unexpected GPU process crashes or memory access violations. 7) Engage with hardware and software vendors to understand timelines for patches and coordinate vulnerability management. 8) For critical systems, consider isolating or segmenting affected devices from sensitive networks until remediation is applied. 9) Educate IT and security teams about the nature of the vulnerability and the importance of limiting local access and privilege escalation vectors.