nvidia-graphics-drivers, nvidia-graphics-drivers-173, nvidia-graphics-drivers-173-updates, nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates vulnerability

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2012-0946  

NVIDIA graphics drivers could be made to run programs as an administrator.

It was discovered that the NVIDIA graphics drivers could be reconfigured to gain access to arbitrary system memory. A local attacker could use this issue to possibly gain root privileges.

11 April 2012

nvidia-graphics-drivers, nvidia-graphics-drivers-173, nvidia-graphics-drivers-173-updates, nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates vulnerability

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

  • Ubuntu 11.10
  • Ubuntu 11.04
  • Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary

NVIDIA graphics drivers could be made to run programs as an administrator.

Software Description

  • nvidia-graphics-drivers - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
  • nvidia-graphics-drivers-173 - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
  • nvidia-graphics-drivers-173-updates - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
  • nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver

Details

It was discovered that the NVIDIA graphics drivers could be reconfigured to gain access to arbitrary system memory. A local attacker could use this issue to possibly gain root privileges.

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 11.10
nvidia-173 - 173.14.30-0ubuntu8.1
nvidia-173-updates - 173.14.30-0ubuntu5.1
nvidia-current - 280.13-0ubuntu6.1
nvidia-current-updates - 280.13-0ubuntu5.1
Ubuntu 11.04
nvidia-173 - 173.14.30-0ubuntu1.1
nvidia-current - 270.41.06-0ubuntu1.1
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
nvidia-173 - 173.14.22-0ubuntu11.1
nvidia-current - 195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04.2

To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

References