CVE-2020-5973 in Virtual GPU Manager
Summary
by MITRE
NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager and the guest drivers contain a vulnerability in vGPU plugin, in which there is the potential to execute privileged operations, which may lead to denial of service. This affects vGPU version 8.x (prior to 8.4), version 9.x (prior to 9.4) and version 10.x (prior to 10.3).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-5973 resides within NVIDIA's Virtual GPU Manager and its associated guest drivers, specifically affecting the vGPU plugin component that governs virtualized graphics processing unit operations. This flaw represents a critical security weakness that enables unauthorized execution of privileged operations, fundamentally compromising the integrity and availability of virtualized GPU environments. The vulnerability impacts multiple major versions of NVIDIA's vGPU software including 8.x series before 8.4, 9.x series before 9.4, and 10.x series before 10.3, indicating a widespread exposure across the vGPU ecosystem that has persisted for significant periods. The affected components operate within virtualized computing environments where multiple virtual machines share physical GPU resources, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in cloud computing and enterprise virtualization scenarios.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient privilege validation mechanisms within the vGPU plugin architecture, allowing malicious actors to escalate their privileges and execute operations that should be restricted to authorized system components. This flaw essentially creates a pathway for unauthorized code execution with elevated privileges, potentially enabling attackers to manipulate core system functions, access sensitive data, or disrupt service availability. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-276, which addresses improper privileges, and represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege that governs secure system design. The attack vector typically involves exploitation of the plugin's interface or communication protocols that handle GPU resource allocation and management, where inadequate input validation allows malicious payloads to bypass normal access controls.
The operational impact of CVE-2020-5973 extends beyond simple denial of service, as it creates a persistent security risk that can be leveraged for more sophisticated attacks within virtualized environments. Organizations utilizing NVIDIA vGPU solutions across cloud platforms, data centers, or enterprise virtualization infrastructures face potential compromise of their entire GPU virtualization stack. The vulnerability can result in complete system disruption through denial of service conditions, but more concerning is the potential for privilege escalation that could enable attackers to gain administrative control over virtual GPU resources. This represents a significant concern for multi-tenant cloud environments where isolation between virtual machines is paramount, as the vulnerability could be exploited to access or manipulate resources belonging to other tenants. The long duration of exposure across multiple versions suggests that this vulnerability was likely overlooked during initial security assessments, highlighting gaps in the security validation processes for virtualization components.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2020-5973 require immediate implementation of software updates to the affected vGPU versions, specifically upgrading to versions 8.4, 9.4, or 10.3 respectively, which contain the necessary patches to address the privilege escalation vulnerability. Organizations should also implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of vGPU management interfaces, particularly focusing on restricting administrative access to only trusted entities. The remediation process must include comprehensive testing of updated drivers to ensure compatibility with existing virtualized workloads and avoid unintended service disruptions. Additionally, monitoring systems should be enhanced to detect anomalous privilege usage patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, as the vulnerability's nature makes traditional signature-based detection challenging. Security teams should also conduct thorough assessments of their virtualization environments to identify any potential unauthorized access or privilege escalation that may have occurred during the vulnerability's exposure period, with particular attention to audit logs and system monitoring data that could reveal exploitation activities.