CVE-2024-0099 in vGPU Software
Summary
by MITRE • 06/14/2024
NVIDIA vGPU software for Linux contains a vulnerability in the Virtual GPU Manager, where the guest OS could cause buffer overrun in the host. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to information disclosure, data tampering, escalation of privileges, and denial of service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/18/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-0099 affects NVIDIA vGPU software for Linux systems, specifically within the Virtual GPU Manager component that facilitates communication between host and guest operating systems in virtualized GPU environments. This issue represents a critical security flaw that arises from inadequate input validation and memory management within the vGPU software stack. The vulnerability exists in the inter-process communication mechanisms that enable guest operating systems to interact with the host system's GPU virtualization layer, creating a potential attack surface where malicious guest code can manipulate memory structures intended for legitimate operations.
The technical flaw manifests as a buffer overrun condition that occurs when the Virtual GPU Manager fails to properly validate the size and content of data received from guest operating systems. This memory corruption vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking in the host-side code that processes GPU-related commands and data structures transmitted from virtualized guest environments. The flaw allows an attacker with access to a guest OS to craft malicious input that exceeds allocated buffer space, potentially overwriting adjacent memory locations and corrupting critical system data structures. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a classic example of improper input validation in system interfaces.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends across multiple security domains and can result in severe consequences for affected systems. An attacker exploiting this flaw could achieve information disclosure by overwriting memory regions containing sensitive data, potentially accessing credentials, system configurations, or other confidential information stored in memory. The vulnerability also enables data tampering capabilities, allowing malicious actors to modify critical GPU-related data structures or system parameters that govern virtualized GPU operations. Privilege escalation represents another significant risk, as the buffer overrun could potentially be leveraged to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges, possibly gaining root access to the host system. Additionally, the vulnerability creates opportunities for denial of service attacks that could render the entire virtualized GPU environment unavailable, disrupting critical applications and services that depend on GPU acceleration.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2024-0099 should prioritize immediate patch deployment from NVIDIA, as the vulnerability affects core virtualization functionality that impacts enterprise and cloud computing environments. Organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit guest OS access to only necessary GPU resources, reducing the attack surface available to potential exploit attempts. Monitoring systems should be enhanced to detect unusual memory allocation patterns or communication anomalies between guest and host systems that might indicate exploitation attempts. Security teams should also consider implementing runtime protection mechanisms such as address space layout randomization and stack canaries to make successful exploitation more difficult. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining secure communication boundaries in virtualized environments and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059, which covers command and scripting interpreter usage, and T1068, which addresses exploit for privilege escalation in virtualized computing environments. Organizations using NVIDIA vGPU solutions must also review their virtualization security policies and ensure proper isolation between guest operating systems and host resources to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being exploited in their infrastructure.