CVE-2026-47604 in GeForce
Summary
by MITRE • 09/30/2026
NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Windows and Linux contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode driver where a local user may access another process's GPU channel state due to missing authorization checks. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to information disclosure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/30/2026
The identified vulnerability resides within the NVIDIA Graphics Processing Unit display driver, specifically affecting both Windows and Linux operating systems. This flaw is located in the kernel mode component of the driver architecture, which operates with high privileges and has direct access to hardware resources. The core technical issue stems from a failure in implementing proper authorization checks when handling requests related to GPU channel state management. In modern graphics architectures, particularly those utilizing compute shaders or advanced rendering pipelines, processes often establish dedicated channels for communicating with the GPU. These channels maintain specific states that define how data is processed and rendered. When a local user initiates an operation involving these channels, the driver fails to verify whether the requesting process has legitimate ownership or permission to access the state of another process's channel. This absence of strict identity verification allows one application to interact with resources belonging to a different, potentially isolated, context without triggering appropriate security exceptions.
From a technical perspective, this represents a classic privilege escalation vector within the kernel space, although it is triggered by local user-level actions rather than remote exploitation. The vulnerability aligns closely with CWE-269, which describes Improper Privilege Management, specifically regarding the failure to enforce access controls on sensitive system resources. By bypassing these checks, an attacker can read memory structures that contain sensitive information related to other running applications. This could include cryptographic keys, authentication tokens, or proprietary data being processed by high-value processes such as web browsers, enterprise security software, or financial applications. The ability to inspect the GPU channel state effectively allows for side-channel analysis or direct memory leakage, depending on how the driver exposes this internal state to user-space queries.
The operational impact of exploiting this vulnerability is primarily centered around information disclosure and potential compromise of confidentiality guarantees within multi-user environments. While a local attacker might not immediately gain full system control through this specific flaw alone, the ability to exfiltrate sensitive data from other processes significantly degrades the security posture of the host machine. In scenarios where multiple users share a single workstation or in virtualized desktop infrastructure, one user could potentially glean insights into another user's activities or extract confidential information. This undermines trust in the isolation mechanisms provided by both the operating system and the graphics driver stack. Furthermore, if combined with other vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows in adjacent memory regions, this access could serve as a stepping stone for more severe exploits leading to arbitrary code execution.
To mitigate this risk, organizations should prioritize applying vendor-provided patches that address these authorization gaps within the kernel mode driver. NVIDIA has likely released updates that enforce stricter validation of process identifiers and channel ownership before allowing state retrieval operations. Administrators must ensure that all systems running affected versions of the display driver are updated to the latest stable release. Additionally, implementing strict application whitelisting policies can reduce the attack surface by limiting which applications have permission to interact with low-level graphics APIs. Users should also be educated about the risks associated with executing untrusted software on shared machines, as even local privilege escalation attempts via GPU drivers pose a tangible threat to data confidentiality in multi-tenant environments. Monitoring for unusual patterns of GPU resource access through endpoint detection and response tools can further aid in identifying potential exploitation attempts before significant damage occurs.