CVE-2026-45195: Imaginationtech DDK Privilege Escalation

CVE-2026-45195 Overview

CVE-2026-45195 affects the Imagination Technologies DDK (Driver Development Kit) GPU driver. Kernel software running inside a Host virtual machine can submit improper commands to the GPU Firmware. These commands trigger memory reads or writes outside the permitted range for the host kernel. The GPU Firmware treats addresses supplied by the guest as trusted, allowing more privileged memory access than the system should permit. The vulnerability is categorized under [CWE-280] Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges.

Critical Impact
A local attacker with kernel privileges inside a Host VM can achieve out-of-bounds memory access on the host, resulting in high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Affected Products

Imagination Technologies DDK (all versions prior to fixed release)
Imagination Technologies DDK version 26.1 RTM1
Systems using Imagination GPU firmware in virtualized host configurations

Discovery Timeline

2026-06-26 - CVE-2026-45195 published to NVD
2026-06-29 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-45195

Vulnerability Analysis

The flaw resides in the interface between the Host VM kernel driver and the GPU Firmware. Kernel software in the Host VM issues commands with memory addresses that the GPU Firmware processes without adequate validation. Because the Firmware operates at a higher privilege boundary than the Host VM, addresses accepted from the guest kernel can be dereferenced with elevated access rights.

This mismatch enables the caller to direct GPU Firmware operations against memory regions outside the caller's permitted range. The result is arbitrary read or write access to host kernel memory through the Firmware's privileged execution context. The vulnerability requires local access with existing kernel-level privileges inside the Host VM.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient permission checking on memory addresses passed to the GPU Firmware. The Firmware trusts addresses supplied by the Host VM kernel driver and performs memory operations using its own privilege level. There is no boundary enforcement to restrict Firmware-initiated accesses to the address range permitted to the requesting caller.

Attack Vector

An attacker requires local access and low privileges within the Host VM kernel context to issue GPU commands. The attacker crafts command buffers containing addresses that reference memory outside the calling process's permitted range. When the GPU Firmware executes these commands, it performs the read or write operation against arbitrary host kernel memory. Successful exploitation compromises host kernel confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

No public proof-of-concept exploit is available at the time of publication, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. For technical specifics, refer to the Imagination Technologies GPU Driver Vulnerabilities advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-45195

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected GPU command submissions referencing memory addresses outside the process's allocated range
Host kernel memory corruption or panics originating from GPU Firmware transactions
Anomalous GPU driver activity from Host VM processes lacking a legitimate graphics workload

Detection Strategies

Monitor GPU command buffer submissions for address ranges outside expected DMA-mapped regions
Correlate host kernel faults or unexpected memory modifications with preceding GPU Firmware activity
Audit kernel modules and drivers interacting with the Imagination DDK interface for unauthorized modifications

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable kernel audit logging for ioctl calls into the Imagination GPU driver
Track process privilege escalations that follow GPU driver interactions in Host VM environments
Review virtualization host telemetry for cross-boundary memory access anomalies

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-45195

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the patched Imagination Technologies DDK release as soon as it is available from the vendor
Inventory all systems using Imagination GPU firmware, particularly virtualized host deployments
Restrict kernel-level access within Host VMs to trusted administrators and workloads only

Patch Information

Imagination Technologies has published advisory information at the Imagination Technologies GPU Driver Vulnerabilities page. System integrators and OEMs shipping products based on Imagination GPU IP should obtain and integrate the fixed DDK release. Downstream vendors must rebuild and redistribute affected kernel driver packages to end users.

Workarounds

Limit the deployment of untrusted workloads within Host VMs that have access to the GPU driver interface
Disable GPU passthrough or virtualization features where not required for business operations
Apply the principle of least privilege to kernel modules and restrict loading of non-essential drivers

bash

# Verify installed Imagination DDK version on Linux hosts
modinfo pvrsrvkm | grep -E "version|filename"
dmesg | grep -i "PowerVR\|Imagination"