Summary
A vulnerability in the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Linux allows an unprivileged user to bypass an authorization check and modify privileged configuration. Successful exploitation could enable privilege escalation, code execution, denial of service, information disclosure, or data tampering.
Affected context
The issue occurs in the kernel-mode layer of the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Linux when privileged configuration operations are insufficiently protected by authorization checks. Risk is present where unprivileged users can access the affected driver interface and the driver accepts configuration changes without reliably confirming the caller's permissions.
Exploit preconditions
- Attack surface: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver kernel-mode interfaces
- Required access: An unprivileged local user account on an affected Linux system
- Trigger point: An operation that modifies privileged driver configuration
- Why exploitation is possible: An authorization check can be bypassed,
allowing a caller without the required privileges to perform a protected action
Why this happens
The underlying flaw is an authorization enforcement failure. A kernel-mode driver operation that changes privileged configuration does not consistently verify whether the requesting user is permitted to perform that operation. This behavior maps to CWE-862, Missing Authorization, because access control is absent, incomplete, or ineffective for a protected resource or action.
Potential impact
- An attacker may escalate privileges on the affected host.
- An attacker could execute code with elevated permissions.
- The system may experience denial of service or driver instability.
- Sensitive information could be disclosed.
- Privileged configuration or system data may be tampered with.
General mitigation guidance
Mitigation generally focuses on ensuring that every privileged driver operation
performs a complete authorization check before applying changes.
Common defensive patterns include:
- Enforcing authorization at the kernel boundary for each protected operation.
- Applying deny-by-default access controls to driver interfaces.
- Separating user-controlled requests from privileged configuration changes.
- Validating caller identity, capabilities, and requested scope consistently.
- Running workloads with least privilege and limiting local user access to GPU
device interfaces where operationally feasible.
- Monitoring and restricting unexpected changes to GPU driver configuration.
How teams detect issues like this
Organizations can look for authorization-bypass indicators through:
- Static analysis of kernel and driver paths that modify privileged state.
- Code review checks confirming authorization before every sensitive operation.
- Tests that exercise protected interfaces using unprivileged accounts.
- Policy enforcement that limits access to GPU device nodes and driver controls.
- Runtime monitoring for unusual configuration changes, privilege transitions,
driver errors, or unexpected GPU interface activity.
Automated code review and security analysis tools may help identify privileged
operations that lack consistent access-control enforcement.
