CVE-2021-1057
📋 TL;DR
NVIDIA vGPU Manager vulnerability allows guest virtual machines to allocate unauthorized resources, potentially leading to data breaches, denial of service, or information disclosure. This affects organizations using NVIDIA vGPU technology for virtualization. The vulnerability impacts vGPU versions 8.x before 8.6 and 11.0 before 11.3.
💻 Affected Systems
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager
- NVIDIA vGPU plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete compromise of host system integrity and confidentiality, allowing guest VMs to access unauthorized host resources, potentially leading to data exfiltration or complete system takeover.
Likely Case
Guest VMs gaining unauthorized access to host resources, potentially causing denial of service through resource exhaustion or accessing sensitive information from other VMs.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper network segmentation and access controls, though vulnerability still exists at the hypervisor level.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires guest VM access and knowledge of vGPU resource allocation mechanisms. No public exploits have been reported.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: vGPU version 8.6 or later, vGPU version 11.3 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5142
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download updated vGPU software from NVIDIA portal. 2. Stop all VMs using vGPU. 3. Update vGPU manager on host. 4. Update vGPU drivers in guest VMs. 5. Restart host system and VMs.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Isolate vGPU-enabled VMs
allSegment vGPU-enabled virtual machines onto separate hosts or networks to limit potential lateral movement.
Restrict vGPU resource allocation
linuxImplement strict resource quotas and monitoring for vGPU allocations to detect anomalous behavior.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate affected vGPU hosts from critical networks and implement strict network segmentation
- Implement enhanced monitoring for unusual vGPU resource allocation patterns and guest VM behavior
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check vGPU version on host: cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version | grep vGPUCheck Version:
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version | grep vGPUVerify Fix Applied:
Verify vGPU version is 8.6+ or 11.3+ and check that no unauthorized resource allocation is occurring📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual vGPU resource allocation patterns in /var/log/nvidia-vgpu-mgr.log
- Guest VM attempting to allocate resources beyond configured limits
Network Indicators:
- Unusual network traffic from vGPU-enabled VMs to other hosts
- Resource exhaustion alerts from virtualization platform
SIEM Query:
source="nvidia-vgpu-mgr.log" AND ("resource allocation" OR "unauthorized access")