Privilege escalation in Arm-based CPUs

1) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU106251

Risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 5.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2024-7881

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to improperly imposed security restrictions. An unprivileged context can trigger a data memory-dependent prefetch engine to fetch the contents of a privileged location. A local user or process can read  privileged data and escalate privileges on the system.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Cortex-X3: All versions

Cortex-X4: All versions

Cortex-X925: All versions

Neoverse V2: All versions

Neoverse V3: All versions

Neoverse V3AE: All versions

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:h:arm:cortex-x3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:h:arm:cortex-x4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:h:arm:cortex-x925:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:h:arm:neoverse_v2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:h:arm:neoverse_v3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:h:arm:neoverse_v3ae:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://developer.arm.com/Arm%20Security%20Center/Arm%20CPU%20Vulnerability%20CVE-2024-7881

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.