CVE-2025-23271 in CUDA Toolkit
Summary
by MITRE • 09/24/2025
NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit for all platforms contains a vulnerability in the nvdisasm binary where a user may cause an out-of-bounds read by passing a malformed ELF file to nvdisasm. A successful exploit of this vulnerability may lead to a partial denial of service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/03/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-23271 affects the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit across all supported platforms and resides within the nvdisasm binary component. This tool serves as a disassembler for NVIDIA GPU binaries and is commonly used in development and debugging environments where developers analyze compiled CUDA code. The flaw represents a classic out-of-bounds read condition that occurs when the nvdisasm utility processes malformed ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) files. Such files may be intentionally crafted to exploit the vulnerability or could result from corrupted data in legitimate use cases. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-125 as an out-of-bounds read, which is a well-documented weakness in software systems where memory access exceeds the bounds of allocated buffers. This specific implementation flaw demonstrates poor input validation within the ELF parsing logic of the nvdisasm utility.
The operational impact of this vulnerability manifests primarily as a partial denial of service condition. When an attacker or unauthorized user supplies a malformed ELF file to the nvdisasm binary, the utility will attempt to read memory locations beyond the intended buffer boundaries. This behavior typically results in the application crashing or becoming unresponsive, effectively preventing legitimate users from utilizing the disassembler functionality. The partial denial of service aspect indicates that while the system may not completely crash, the specific nvdisasm component becomes unavailable for legitimate operations, disrupting development workflows and debugging processes. The vulnerability does not appear to enable arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation, but rather focuses on system availability and service disruption. This type of vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 which involves network denial of service attacks through the exploitation of software vulnerabilities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2025-23271 should prioritize immediate patching of affected NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit installations. Organizations should implement strict input validation controls for any ELF files processed through nvdisasm or related tools, particularly in automated environments. System administrators should consider implementing sandboxing or containerization approaches to isolate the nvdisasm utility from critical system resources. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit who can execute the nvdisasm binary with potentially untrusted input files. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify other similar out-of-bounds read vulnerabilities within the CUDA toolkit and related components. The vulnerability highlights the importance of robust input validation and memory safety practices in system utilities that process external binary data, particularly in development environments where diverse input sources are common. Organizations should also maintain updated threat intelligence feeds to monitor for exploitation attempts targeting this specific vulnerability.