NVIDIA GeForce Experience (GFE) response to CPU speculative side channel vulnerabilities - CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5754
BULLETIN SUMMARY
NVIDIA is providing an initial security update to mitigate aspects of Google Project Zero's January 3, 2018 publication of novel information disclosure attacks that combine CPU speculative execution with known side channels.
NVIDIA's core business is GPU computing.
NVIDIA believes our GPU hardware is immune to the reported security issue. As for our driver software, we are providing updates to help mitigate the CPU security issue. You can find information about the driver software updates in Security Bulletin 4611.
This bulletin addresses updates for NVIDIA GeForce Experience (GFE) software to help mitigate potential CPU security vulnerabilities.
The potential vulnerabilities have three known variants:
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Variant 1 (CVE-2017-5753): Software mitigations for the CPU issue are provided with the security update included in this bulletin. NVIDIA expects to work together with its ecosystem partners as future updates are released to further strengthen mitigations for the potentially affected CPUs.
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Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715): NVIDIA's initial analysis indicates that GFE running on potentially affected CPUs may require further updates. NVIDIA expects to work together with its ecosystem partners as they release future updates for this variant.
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Variant 3 (CVE-2017-5754): NVIDIA believes that GFE is not vulnerable to this variant.
For updates and additional information, actively monitor the NVIDIA Product Security page.
VULNERABILITY DETAILS
The following sections summarize the potential vulnerabilities. Descriptions are as published on MITRE and risk assessments follow CVSS.
CVE-2017-5753
Computer systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to unauthorized code with local user access via a side-channel analysis.
CVSS Base Score: 8.2 CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
CVE-2017-5715
Computer systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and indirect branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to unauthorized code with local user access via a side-channel analysis.
CVSS Base Score: 8.2 CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
CVE-2017-5754
Computer systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to unauthorized code with local user access via a side-channel analysis of the data cache.
CVSS Base Score: 7.9 CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
NVIDIA's risk assessment is based on an average of risk across a diverse set of installed systems and may not represent the true risk of your local installation. NVIDIA recommends consulting a security or IT professional to evaluate the risk of your specific configuration.
UPDATED PRODUCTS
| Product | Operating System |
|---|---|
| GeForce Experience (GFE) Software | Windows |
SECURITY UPDATES
When the update is available, it will be automatically applied by the OTA update. You can also download the update from the NVIDIA GeForce Experience Download page.
| Product Series | Updated Version |
|---|---|
| GeForce Experience 3.x | 3.12.0.84 |
Note: If you are using an earlier product series of GFE, upgrade to a supported series that contains the update as listed in the Security Updates table.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
None.
REVISION HISTORY
| Revision | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | January 18, 2018 | Updated information about available security updates |
| 2.0 | January 16, 2018 | Added clarification that GPU hardware is not affected and that NVIDIA is updating its drivers to help mitigate the CPU security issue |
| 1.0 | January 9, 2018 | Initial release |
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