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Amazon Fire TV Cube 2nd Gen Rooted Using Four-Year-Old Arm Mali Vulnerability

A public proof of concept reports root access on a second-generation Fire TV Cube through CVE-2022-38181, but its compatibility is limited to a specific configuration and unverified on current firmware.
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A public proof of concept reports root access on the second-generation Amazon Fire TV Cube by exploiting CVE-2022-38181, a use-after-free flaw in Arm Mali GPU kernel drivers. The code is tailored to a specific Fire OS configuration; it does not establish that every Fire TV Cube generation or current retail firmware is vulnerable.

What the Fire TV Cube exploit does

The proof of concept (POC) targets the Fire TV Cube 2nd Gen configuration identified in its repository as raven. Its author says the exploit achieves arbitrary kernel code execution, disables SELinux, and gains root access. Those are the repository maintainer’s claims, not independently verified test results.

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The underlying flaw, CVE-2022-38181, is a use-after-free in the Arm Mali GPU kernel driver. In NIST’s description, “The Arm Mali GPU kernel driver allows unprivileged users to access freed memory because GPU memory operations are mishandled.” A successful kernel-level exploit can therefore cross the boundary between an ordinary user process and privileged system control.

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NIST’s National Vulnerability Database assigns the vulnerability a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8, rated High. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, a designation that underscores that the flaw has been exploited; it does not establish that this particular Fire TV Cube POC works on any given device.

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Which Fire TV Cube is named

Amazon’s specification identifies the Fire TV Cube 2nd Gen (2019), model AFTR, as running Fire OS 7 and using an S922X system-on-chip with an ARM Mali G52-MP2 GPU. The POC repository calls its target raven and gives a device fingerprint: Amazon/raven/raven:9/PS7624.3337N/0026810845440:user/amz-p,release-keys.

These names describe different things: AFTR is Amazon’s published model identifier, while raven is the repository’s target naming. The POC author says the code was adapted for a 32-bit Fire OS userspace, Bifrost r16p0 drivers, and Linux kernel 4.9.113. A Mali GPU name by itself is not enough to show compatibility; driver version, operating-system userspace, kernel configuration, firmware build, and patch state all matter.

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Does it work on your Fire TV Cube?

The public evidence supports a narrow claim: the POC is written for the second-generation Cube configuration it names. It does not establish compatibility with other Cube generations, all second-generation firmware builds, or current retail devices. Nor does Arm’s driver-fix timeline identify when, or whether, a particular Amazon Fire OS build incorporated a fix.

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The repository says to run its program 30–90 seconds after boot “for greatest reliability.” That is the maintainer’s timing advice, not a guarantee of success or an independently validated procedure. This report does not establish that the POC has been tested on a specific device or firmware.

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CVE-2022-38181: affected driver ranges and fix timeline

NIST lists these Arm Mali driver ranges as affected by CVE-2022-38181:

GPU driver family Affected versions listed by NIST
Bifrost r0p0 through r38p1, and r39p0
Valhall r19p0 through r38p1, and r39p0
Midgard r4p0 through r32p0

GitHub Security Lab’s disclosure timeline records that Arm agreed the issue was a security vulnerability on August 15, 2022; CVE-2022-38181 was assigned on October 3, 2022; and Arm driver version r40p0 was released to address it on October 7, 2022. The driver release is an Arm timeline fact, not proof of the patch status of a particular Amazon firmware build.

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CISA added the vulnerability to its KEV catalog on March 30, 2023, with an April 20, 2023 due date and the action “Apply updates per vendor instructions.” That guidance supports keeping device software updated, but these sources do not identify a specific Fire OS release that fixed the issue on every Cube.

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How to interpret the root-access report

  • Confirmed by the cited records: CVE-2022-38181 affects specified versions of Arm Mali drivers, carries an NVD severity rating of High, and was addressed in Arm driver r40p0.
  • Reported by the POC author: a tailored exploit for the second-generation Cube configuration named raven reaches kernel code execution and root.
  • Not established: universal vulnerability across Fire TV Cube models, compatibility with a particular current device or firmware, or the exact Fire OS build in which Amazon incorporated a fix.

If you own a Cube, use Amazon’s device update mechanism and vendor guidance rather than treating the POC as a compatibility test. The existence of an exploit for one configuration is not a reason to assume another device is rootable—or safe from the vulnerability—without knowing its driver and firmware state.

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