CVE-2026-47496 in Virtual GPU Manager
Summary
by MITRE • 09/30/2026
NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Linux contains a vulnerability in the Virtual GPU Manager (vGPU plugin) where a guest VM user may cause an out-of-bounds write by sending a specially crafted RPC call to the host. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to escalation of privileges, data tampering, and denial of service.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/30/2026
The NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Linux includes a critical security flaw within its Virtual GPU Manager component, specifically affecting the vGPU plugin architecture that facilitates hardware-accelerated graphics processing in virtualized environments. This vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation when handling Remote Procedure Call RPC requests originating from guest virtual machines and directed toward the host system. The core technical issue is an out-of-bounds write condition, which occurs because the driver fails to properly verify memory boundaries before executing data writes triggered by these RPC calls. In a typical vGPU setup, the hypervisor manages multiple isolated guest VMs that share physical GPU resources through this plugin. When a malicious or compromised guest user crafts and sends a specially designed RPC payload, it exploits the lack of rigorous boundary checks in the host-side driver code. This allows the attacker to write data beyond the allocated memory buffer, potentially overwriting adjacent memory structures such as function pointers, control flags, or other critical kernel data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for privilege escalation and system compromise. Since the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver operates with high privileges within the Linux host environment, successfully exploiting an out-of-bounds write can allow a low-privilege guest user to execute arbitrary code on the host or modify critical kernel structures. This effectively breaks the isolation boundary between virtual machines and the underlying hypervisor infrastructure. An attacker could leverage this flaw to escalate their privileges from a standard user within a VM to root-level access on the host machine, leading to complete control over the physical server. Furthermore, the ability to write arbitrary data to memory locations enables data tampering, where sensitive information stored in adjacent buffers can be altered or exfiltrated. Additionally, corrupting kernel memory structures often leads to system instability, resulting in a denial of service by causing the host operating system to crash or become unresponsive, thereby disrupting services for all other users sharing that GPU resource.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write and CWE-20 Improper Input Validation within the Common Weakness Enumeration framework. The attack vector involves interacting with an API exposed to potentially hostile inputs from untrusted domains, which maps closely to MITRE ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation via local exploits or component manipulation. In virtualized cloud environments where multi-tenancy is common, such vulnerabilities pose a significant risk as they can be exploited by any tenant who has access to the vGPU-enabled VMs. The exploitation does not necessarily require physical access but relies on network-level or hypervisor-mediated communication channels between guest and host components that are often trusted implicitly without sufficient sanitization of RPC parameters.
Mitigation strategies must focus on both immediate patching and long-term architectural hardening. Organizations running NVIDIA GPU Display Drivers for Linux should immediately apply the latest vendor-provided patches that address this specific flaw in the vGPU plugin, ensuring that all hosts utilizing virtualized graphics acceleration are updated to versions where input validation is strictly enforced. Beyond software updates, administrators should enforce strict least-privilege principles by limiting which users or services can invoke RPC calls against the GPU manager components. Network segmentation and access control lists should be configured to restrict communication between guest VMs and host-side driver interfaces to only necessary traffic patterns. Additionally, deploying runtime application self-protection tools or kernel-level exploit mitigation techniques such as Kernel Address Space Layout Randomization KASLR and Control Flow Integrity CFI can help reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation even if a vulnerability is present. Regular auditing of RPC call parameters and implementing formal verification methods for critical driver code paths are recommended to prevent similar out-of-bounds conditions in future software releases.