Here's something we missed with the latest NVIDIA driver updates - turns out that NVIDIA had multiple security issues that they put out in a recent security bulletin. Multiple issues affect both Windows and Linux, across multiple versions of the official NVIDIA proprietary driver.
The ones that affect the Linux desktop are:
- CVE‑2021‑1052: "NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Windows and Linux contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer (nvlddmkm.sys) handler for DxgkDdiEscape or IOCTL in which user-mode clients can access legacy privileged APIs, which may lead to denial of service, escalation of privileges, and information disclosure."
- CVE‑2021‑1053: "NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Windows and Linux contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer (nvlddmkm.sys) handler for DxgkDdiEscape or IOCTL in which improper validation of a user pointer may lead to denial of service."
- CVE‑2021‑1056: "NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Linux contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer (nvidia.ko) in which it does not completely honor operating system file system permissions to provide GPU device-level isolation, which may lead to denial of service or information disclosure."
There's also some vGPU security issues too, which also affect Linux but they're not regular desktop stuff.
If you want to make sure you're totally safe you should update to the latest driver in the series you're using. Going by the information on the NVIDIA security page you should be good on (or better) 460.32.03 which is the latest "Production Branch" driver, 450.102.04 and 390.141 being the latest Legacy driver.
You can look out for future security info here from NVIDIA.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Latest Nvidia driver also has bug for Detroit: Become Human, you can't play after chapter 28, it crashes, need to downgrade 440. After som search in web, it's clear that same happens on Windows too. So, newer drivers have not only security problems.
Last edited by Basiani on 10 January 2021 at 12:39 pm UTC
Last edited by Basiani on 10 January 2021 at 12:39 pm UTC
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i'm safe at least :)
but yeah, things like these happen quite a lot lately. More research is put into checking this kind of stuff i guess?
Ohh thats weird... i played through all of the game with 450.xx drivers..different ones. havent tried on 460 though
Last edited by Xpander on 10 January 2021 at 1:11 pm UTC
xpander@archlinux ~ $ nvidia-smi | grep Version
| NVIDIA-SMI 460.32.03 Driver Version: 460.32.03 CUDA Version: 11.2 but yeah, things like these happen quite a lot lately. More research is put into checking this kind of stuff i guess?
Quoting: BasianiLatest Nvidia driver also has bug for Detroit: Become Human, you can't play after chapter 28, it crashes, need to downgrade 440. After som search in web, it's clear that same happens on Windows too. So, newer drivers have not only security problems.
Ohh thats weird... i played through all of the game with 450.xx drivers..different ones. havent tried on 460 though
Last edited by Xpander on 10 January 2021 at 1:11 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestEdit: What's about the Beta driver: 460.27.04 which is the one I ran the last weeks before the latest release driver where they affected by this too?The versions listed in the article are what NVIDIA say are safe.
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Quoting: XpanderOhh thats weird... i played through all of the game with 450.xx drivers..different ones. havent tried on 460 though
Yes, 450 works well for Detroit. 460 crashes when starting chapter 29 "Last Chance, Connor". I played that game whole two days and every attemp to play chapter 29 it was crashing. A little search I found that same problem have Windows users and fix was just downgrade Nvidia's driver. Tried downgrade driver on Arch Linux, but there was multiple dependencies and it failed, so temporery I installed Ubuntu with Nvidia-450 and finished game with mostly good ending. Yeah, today going back again to Arch.
Last edited by Basiani on 10 January 2021 at 3:19 pm UTC
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Quoting: BladeforceIm getting sick of nvidia, time to upgrade to a more open company"Escalation of privileges, information disclosure" - seems wide open to me?
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Doesn't work on my machine. I get stuck at a super low resolution and 76 Hz. Using a GTX 1080 on Mint. Anyone else have a similar issue?
I'll just stick to 450 for now I think.
I'll just stick to 450 for now I think.
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Creating security vulnerabilities is a great way to motivate your user-base to get off old code. 
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Schattenspiegel Jan 10, 2021
Quoting: ShaddycatDoesn't work on my machine. I get stuck at a super low resolution and 76 Hz. Using a GTX 1080 on Mint. Anyone else have a similar issue?Did you manually upgrade from the nvidia page or did you use the driver tool provided by Linux Mint in combination with the ppa?
I'll just stick to 450 for now I think.
Last edited by Schattenspiegel on 10 January 2021 at 7:21 pm UTC
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slaapliedje Jan 10, 2021
Quoting: BasianiI really should play through that game, I bought it when it came out on the PS4 though as I thought it was going to be an exclusive one for some reason.Quoting: XpanderOhh thats weird... i played through all of the game with 450.xx drivers..different ones. havent tried on 460 though
Yes, 450 works well for Detroit. 460 crashes when starting chapter 29 "Last Chance, Connor". I played that game whole two days and every attemp to play chapter 29 it was crashing. A little search I found that same problem have Windows users and fix was just downgrade Nvidia's driver. Tried downgrade driver on Arch Linux, but there was multiple dependencies and it failed, so temporery I installed Ubuntu with Nvidia-450 and finished game with mostly good ending. Yeah, today going back again to Arch.
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TheRiddick Jan 10, 2021
The AMD 6000 series of GPU's work on kernel 5.10 just fine but allot of nice features for them won't appear until kernel 5.12... THAT is the one downside to open-source, it can take a little while for all the features to be exposed.
I gotta give it to NVIDIA for keeping their driver updated all by themselves, but obviously they have a method of porting code from their windows drivers to Linux which appears to mostly work with a few work around caveats.
I've found updating GPU drivers and MESA to be much easier under Arch based Linux, AUR is a godsend also! The whole PPA Ubuntu random packages method was rather clunky to deal with!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 10 January 2021 at 9:44 pm UTC
I gotta give it to NVIDIA for keeping their driver updated all by themselves, but obviously they have a method of porting code from their windows drivers to Linux which appears to mostly work with a few work around caveats.
I've found updating GPU drivers and MESA to be much easier under Arch based Linux, AUR is a godsend also! The whole PPA Ubuntu random packages method was rather clunky to deal with!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 10 January 2021 at 9:44 pm UTC
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