CVE-2021-1064
📋 TL;DR
NVIDIA vGPU manager contains a vulnerability where it improperly handles untrusted input by converting it to a pointer and dereferencing it, potentially leading to information disclosure or denial of service. This affects organizations using NVIDIA vGPU technology in virtualized environments with vGPU version 8.x (prior to 8.6) or version 11.0 (prior to 11.3).
💻 Affected Systems
- NVIDIA vGPU Manager
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system crash leading to denial of service across all virtual machines using the affected vGPU, potentially with information disclosure through memory corruption.
Likely Case
Denial of service affecting specific virtual machines using the vulnerable vGPU plugin, causing application crashes or VM instability.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper segmentation and access controls preventing untrusted users from interacting with vGPU management interfaces.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires access to vGPU management interfaces and knowledge of the vulnerability. 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. Install on virtualization hosts. 3. Reboot affected hosts. 4. Verify vGPU functionality post-update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict vGPU Management Access
allLimit access to vGPU management interfaces to trusted administrators only.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate vGPU management interfaces to trusted network segments only
- Implement strict access controls and monitoring for vGPU management activities
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check vGPU version on host: cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version or nvidia-smi -q | grep 'Driver Version'Check Version:
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify vGPU version is 8.6+ or 11.3+ using same commands, ensure no crashes in vGPU-related services.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Kernel crashes related to nvidia-vgpu-vfio
- vGPU service failures in system logs
- Unexpected vGPU plugin errors
Network Indicators:
- Unusual connections to vGPU management ports (typically internal only)
SIEM Query:
source="kernel" AND ("nvidia-vgpu" OR "vgpu") AND ("crash" OR "panic" OR "segfault")