Graphics card maker NVIDIA on Saturday quietly released a driver update (version 310.90) that fixes a recently-uncovered security vulnerability in the NVIDIA Display Driver service (nvvsvc.exe).
The vulnerability, disclosed on Christmas day by Peter Winter-Smith, a researcher from the U.K., allows an attacker to gain super-user access to any system running the vulnerable driver software.
“The NVidia vulnerability identified by Peter Winter-Smith is a serious risk to any organization using these drivers on enterprise systems,” HD Moore, CSO at Rapid7 and Chief Architect for Metasploit told SecurityWeek at the time. “The vulnerability allows a remote attacker with a valid domain account to gain super-user access to any desktop or laptop running the vulnerable service.”
“This flaw also allows an attacker (or rogue user) with a low-privileged account to gain super-access to their own system, but the real risk to enterprises is the remote vector,” Moore added.
In addition to the security fix, driver version 310.90 addresses other bugs and brings performance increases for games and applications for a number of GPUs including the GeForce 400/500/600 Series. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration, NVIDIA said.
The driver update can be found here, and the full release notes can be found here in PDF format.