GLSA 201206-19: NVIDIA Drivers: Privilege escalation

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	high
Title:	NVIDIA Drivers: Privilege escalation
Date:	06/23/2012
Bugs:	#411617
ID:	201206-19

Synopsis

A vulnerability in NVIDIA drivers may allow a local attacker to gain escalated privileges.

Background

The NVIDIA drivers provide X11 and GLX support for NVIDIA graphic boards.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers	< 295.40	>= 295.40	All supported architectures

Description

A vulnerability has been found in the way NVIDIA drivers handle read/write access to GPU device nodes, allowing access to arbitrary system memory locations.

NOTE: Exposure to this vulnerability is reduced in Gentoo due to 660 permissions being used on the GPU device nodes by default.

Impact

A local attacker could gain escalated privileges.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All NVIDIA driver users should upgrade to the latest version:

      # emerge --sync
      # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose
      ">=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-295.40"

References

CVE-2012-0946

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201206-19.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.