NVIDIA has released patches to address High severity vulnerabilities in its NVIDIA GPU Display Driver that could allow an attacker to escalate privileges or execute code on vulnerable systems.
The most important of the addressed bugs is CVE‑2019‑5675, an issue found in the kernel mode layer (nvlddmkm.sys) handler for DxgkDdiEscape. Because shared data such as static variables across threads is not properly synchronized, undefined behavior and unpredictable data changes may emerge.
NVIDIA reveals in an advisory that the bug could be exploited to cause denial of service, to escalate privileges on the vulnerable system, or leak information. The flaw has a CVSS score of 7.7.
The second vulnerability patched in the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver impacts the installer software and resides in the Windows system DLLs being incorrectly loaded, without validating the path or signature.
Generally, the issue is also being referred to as binary planting or DLL preloading attack. In this case, the flaw could lead to privilege escalation through code execution. Tracked as CVE‑2019‑5676, the vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.2.
Tracked as CVE‑2019‑5677 and featuring a CVSS score of 5.6, the third flaw fixed with this security update resides in the kernel mode layer (nvlddmkm.sys) handler for DeviceIoControl.
Because the buffer access mechanisms such as indexes or pointers that the software uses to read from a buffer reference memory locations after the targeted buffer, the issue could lead to denial of service, NVIDIA says.
NVIDIA’s GeForce, Quadro, NVS, and Tesla display drivers on Windows systems are all impacted by these flaws.
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