CVE-2022-21816 in Virtual GPU Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 02/07/2022
NVIDIA vGPU software contains a vulnerability in the Virtual GPU Manager (nvidia.ko), where a user in the guest OS can cause a GPU interrupt storm on the hypervisor host, leading to a denial of service.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/11/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-21816 resides within NVIDIA vGPU software's Virtual GPU Manager component, specifically in the nvidia.ko kernel module. This flaw represents a critical security weakness that allows unauthorized access from guest operating systems to manipulate hypervisor host resources through malicious interrupt handling mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically affects systems utilizing NVIDIA virtual GPU technology where guest VMs can exploit improper interrupt management to generate excessive interrupt signals that overwhelm the host system's processing capabilities.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and interrupt handling within the nvidia.ko kernel module that manages GPU virtualization operations. When a user operating within a guest OS triggers specific interrupt conditions, the Virtual GPU Manager fails to properly validate or limit the frequency of interrupt generation, creating a scenario where multiple rapid interrupt signals flood the host system's interrupt handling infrastructure. This design flaw allows for the creation of an interrupt storm that consumes excessive CPU cycles and system resources on the hypervisor host.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe denial of service threat that can compromise entire virtualized environments. The interrupt storm generated by malicious guest users can cause the hypervisor host to become unresponsive, leading to complete service disruption across all VMs hosted on that system. The impact extends beyond individual VMs to affect the entire virtualization infrastructure, potentially causing cascading failures that impact business-critical applications and services relying on virtualized computing resources.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which addresses buffer overflow conditions in kernel modules, and represents a specific implementation weakness in interrupt handling mechanisms. From an attack framework perspective, this issue maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion. The attack vector requires minimal privileges within the guest OS environment, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by any user with access to the virtualized guest system.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-21816 should prioritize immediate patching of affected NVIDIA vGPU software versions, with administrators monitoring for updated firmware and driver releases from NVIDIA. System administrators should implement interrupt rate limiting mechanisms at the hypervisor level and consider isolating critical VMs from potentially compromised guest environments. Network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit guest user privileges and reduce the attack surface. Additionally, organizations should establish monitoring protocols to detect unusual interrupt patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, implementing automated alerts for abnormal system resource consumption that could signal an active interrupt storm attack.