Dead Pixel Detected: Black Hat 2025 Debuts Apple Graphics Subsystem Security Assessment

At Black Hat USA 2025, the world's most influential security conference, the CyberServal team presented its exclusive research findings, "Dead Pixel Detected: A Security Assessment of Apple's Graphics Subsystem" at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

The study systematically revealed the potential security risks of Apple's GPU/graphics subsystem for the first time, which has attracted widespread attention from academia, industry, and enterprise security teams

BHUSA

Key Findings & Breakthroughs in Apple GPU Security

In the 40-minute session, the issue system presented the findings of vulnerability findings from Architecture Parsing→ Attack Surface Assessment→ Fuzzing→ Vulnerability Discovery. Core contributions include:

Comprehensive Architecture Analysis: For the first time, the implementation details of AMD and Intel-based GPUs, Apple Graphics Accelerator (AGX GPUs), IOMobileFrameBuffer (IOMFB), Display Co-Processor (DCP) and other modules are systematically analyzed.

Reverse and attack surface modeling: Draw a complete attack surface map based on the underlying binary reverse and interface analysis.

Vulnerability Mining and Verification: Through large-scale fuzzing and customization toolchains, more than a dozen kernel vulnerabilities were discovered and verified, including:

CVE-2024-40854

CVE-2024-44197

CVE-2024-44199

CVE-2025-24111

CVE-2025-24257

CVE-2025-24273

CVE-2025-43326, etc.

These vulnerabilities cover critical paths such as GPU rendering, frame cache management, and display coprocessors, and some vulnerabilities may lead to kernel information leakage or even complete control of system permissions. The existence of such vulnerabilities shows that even for a vendor like Apple, which has invested heavily in the field of security, there are still hidden dangers that can be exploited in its core graphics architecture.

Deep Dive: Vulnerability Discovery in Apple Graphics Subsystem

The research team presented a number of core findings in the sharing:

AMD and Intel GPU architecture vulnerabilities

The team found a large number of design flaws and implementation vulnerabilities in traditional GPU architectures, which can be exploited to read and write kernel-state arbitrary addresses.

AGX GPU architecture vulnerability

Through reverse kernel expansion and communication interfaces, the team discovered a missing path for data verification, which can be used to read and write kernel-state arbitrary addresses.

IOMFB module vulnerability

In the frame cache management module, the team discovered multiple unprotected kernel interfaces, which attackers could use to break through and implement arbitrary code execution.

DCP firmware vulnerability

In the display coprocessor-kernel interaction mechanism, the team revealed potential attack surfaces and vulnerabilities through fuzzing.

These findings not only drove Apple to make security fixes in subsequent releases, but also provided industry researchers with new analytical frameworks and methodologies. To avoid getting too involved in sensitive technical details, this article only shares research methods and vulnerability categories, and does not provide attack code that can be directly exploited. If you need to get more information, you can download the official showcase materials from this link.

Implications for Enterprise Security & AI Platforms

With the introduction of Apple Private Cloud Compute (PCC), the device-cloud integrated computing model has put forward higher requirements for the security of the underlying system. The results of this study show that:

Graphics subsystem vulnerabilities would directly threaten the credibility of AI model operation;

Kernel-level protection is the cornerstone of platform trustworthiness;

Security research is moving from the application layer to the deep integration of software and hardware.

Conclusions & Future Directions in GPU Security & Data Protection

The more than a dozen vulnerabilities revealed in this study are just the tip of the iceberg of the security risks of Apple's GPUs. As the GPU subsystem gains traction in modern operating systems, AI platforms, and high-performance computing, it is no longer just a tool for rendering images, but a new entry point for attacks. The same level of security concern as CPUs should extend to GPUs and graphics architectures, or vulnerabilities could become breakthroughs for systemic risk in the future. It is important to note that vulnerability research alone cannot completely eliminate threats, and true enterprise security requires a combination of vulnerability research and data protection. When breaches are unavoidable, data leak prevention and context-aware protection provide the last barrier to security.

Going forward, CyberServal DLP company will continue to delve into the potential attack surface of GPUs and graphics subsystems, and explore how AI can be used to drive automated vulnerability discovery and defense. At the same time, we will also promote a new methodology of "integration of vulnerability research and data protection" to help enterprises ensure the integrity and confidentiality of core data in the face of unknown threats. By combining cutting-edge security research with next-generation data protection technologies, CyberServal hopes to provide more reliable and forward-looking security for enterprises around the world.

CyberServal will continue to be at the forefront of security research and data protection.

👉 Request a demo of CyberServal Next-Gen data loss prevention solutions to learn how to protect your organization's core data before and after vulnerabilities are exploited

CyberServal’s 11-Year Legacy at Black Hat: A Benchmark in Security Research

This is the 11th time that the CyberServal team has been selected for the Black Hat series. Thereinto:

Black Hat USA Long Topic: 5 times

Black Hat Asia Long Topic: 2 times

Black Hat Europe Long Topic: 1 time

Black Hat USA Arsenal Showcase: 3 times

Since its founding in 1997, Black Hat has always been regarded as a bellwether for global security thought and technology, with a strict selection of topics and extremely high gold content. Being continuously selected not only represents CyberServal's technological leadership in the field of international security research, but also demonstrates the team's continuous breakthrough spirit of exploration.

Black Hat 2025 Highlights: AI, Hardware Security & Enterprise Data Protection

In addition to Apple's graphics subsystem research, the Black Hat 2025 topic also demonstrates the overall direction of the security industry. One of the topics that has garnered the most attention is the collision of artificial intelligence and security. In today's accelerated adoption of generative AI, model poisoning, prompt injection, and AI-driven automated attacks are becoming mainstream topics. This means that attackers will be significantly more efficient at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities, and organizations must simultaneously strengthen their defenses with AI technology to maintain their security advantage.

Another key topic is underlying hardware and platform security. From CPUs to GPUs to firmware and supply chains, vulnerabilities in underlying components are no longer just a scientific research problem, but are gradually evolving into real risks affecting enterprises and cloud platforms. This Apple GPU study is a prime example of this trend, reminding the industry that even the most closed ecosystems can have serious flaws at the bottom.

At the same time, Zero Trust and data security compliance have also been mentioned repeatedly. Whether it's financial, healthcare, or high-tech companies, everyone realizes that even if the breach itself is difficult to completely avoid, the real loss often comes from data leakage and abuse. How to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen during the window period before the vulnerability is fixed has become a core concern for enterprise CISOs. That's why CyberServal is driving Next-Gen data loss prevention solutions and Data Lineage – providing organizations with a secure path that remains manageable even when vulnerabilities are out of control.

By combining cutting-edge research with industry trends, CyberServal hopes to not only showcase technological achievements but also encourage the industry to think together about how data security and platform security can work together to protect the true core assets in the new era of AI and cloud computing.