Description

An issue was discovered in DPU in Samsung Mobile Processor Exynos 1280, 2200, and 1380. A heap overflow in the Exynos DRM HDR driver (due to improper buffer size validation) leads to kernel memory corruption and a system crash.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "4.2",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-14T02:17:13.267Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-14T02:17:13.267Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A critical heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability has been identified within the Display Processing Unit (DPU) driver of specific Samsung Exynos mobile processors.\nThe vulnerability resides in the Exynos DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) HDR driver component, specifically stemming from inadequate input validation regarding buffer sizes.\nSuccessful exploitation of this flaw allows an attacker to induce kernel memory corruption, ultimately resulting in a system crash or denial-of-service state.\nThe affected hardware includes Exynos 1280, 1380, and 2200 mobile processors.\nThis vulnerability poses a significant risk to system stability and integrity, as unauthorized manipulation of kernel-mode memory structures can be a precursor to further exploitation, such as local privilege escalation or arbitrary code execution within the kernel context.\nExploitation generally requires an attacker to have local access to the device and the ability to interact with the DRM subsystem, typically through malicious applications or compromised user-space processes that can interface with the affected driver.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is localized within the Exynos DRM HDR driver, which is responsible for managing High Dynamic Range (HDR) display configurations within the DPU hardware abstraction layer.\nThe root cause of the vulnerability is improper bounds checking during the processing of data structures provided to the driver. Specifically, the driver fails to perform sufficient validation on buffer size parameters before performing memory copy or allocation operations in the kernel heap.\nIn the context of the Exynos DRM driver, when a user-space process requests specific HDR display operations via ioctl or similar interfaces, the driver accepts input structures containing size definitions. If these definitions are not strictly validated against the actual allocated heap buffer size, an attacker can supply crafted inputs that cause the driver to write data beyond the intended memory boundaries.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: 1) An attacker identifies the interface used to communicate with the Exynos DRM HDR driver; 2) The attacker crafts a malicious request (IOCTL) containing manipulated size metadata; 3) The driver, lacking proper input sanitization, uses this metadata to perform memory operations; 4) A buffer overflow occurs, overwriting adjacent heap memory chunks.\nBecause the overflow occurs within kernel memory space, the integrity of critical kernel structures, function pointers, or object metadata can be compromised. The immediate observed consequence is a kernel panic or unrecoverable system crash due to memory corruption. However, the potential impact extends beyond crashes; an attacker capable of precisely controlling the heap layout might potentially manipulate kernel-space pointers to redirect control flow.\nThis vulnerability does not inherently require network exposure, as the attack surface is limited to the local system environment where a process can communicate with the DRM character device or associated interfaces. Depending on the device configuration, local privilege requirements might be necessary to interact with the DRM driver, but in many mobile environments, standard application permissions or minor elevated contexts are sufficient to reach these entry points.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes persistent system instability, potential information leakage from the kernel heap, or escalation of privileges if the corrupted memory can be leveraged to execute arbitrary payload instructions with kernel-level authority."
}