Nvidia Display Driver Service Attack Escalates Privileges On Windows Machines
L3sPau1 writes "A zero-day exploit has been found in the Nvidia Display Driver Service on Windows machines. An attacker with local access can use the exploit to gain root privileges on a Windows machine. Windows domains with relaxed firewall rules or file sharing enabled can also pull off the exploit, which was posted to Pastebin by researcher Peter Winter-Smith."
Use Omega drivers, I stopped using Nvidia drivers about the time they started putting an Nvidia windows user on my systems for "gathering performance data".
A zero-day exploit has been found in the Nvidia Display Driver Service on Windows machines. An attacker with local access can use the exploit to gain root privileges on a Windows machine. Windows domains with relaxed firewall rules or file sharing enabled can also pull off the exploit, which was posted to Pastebin by researcher Peter Winter-Smith.
Granted, I've seen worse, but c'mon, man, you're getting paid for this shit.
Pay attention.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
isn't the term root reserved for linux machines, isn't it called admin for windows?
are you aware of any OS that does not suffer by privilege escalation exploits ? if so, be a dear and share it with the rest of us.
MS-DOS.
You kind of need "privileges" in order to have privilege escalation.
I'm wondering if such a pipe system is used (or such a service is enabled) on the NVIDIA binary driver blob for the Linux kernel. Could that be another possible attack vector, or is that not possible with this?
It basically abuses the fact that the.
NVIDIA for unix/Linux had another vulnerability earlier this year pointed out in the article at also at Nvidia's own customer web site http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3140 custhelp.com site for nvidia which showed that using VGA access to RAM allows indiscriminate access to RAM and possible escalation of user privileges with this memory access. Here's the comment from Dave Airlie at the email archive on seclists.org:
Notice how with binary blobs how end-users are screwed and dependent upon the provider of the blob to fix things. Nvidia didn't do anything until after public disclosure of the bug, even though they were notified of the exploit more than three months earlier.
yay! i'm upgrading to ms-dos right now!
If it were going to put people at risk I'd not have released exploit code and I'd have informed the vendor and kept quiet until a fix were issued.
Just when you were scoring high marks, you had to keep flapping your jaws. Vendors (especially NVidia) do not traditionally respond to polite suggestions regarding their buggy code -- you would have eventually been forced to go public, and the vulnerability would have gone that much longer unaddressed. People with insecure systems that would otherwise be none-the-wiser can now take steps to protect themselves until a patch can be developed. There is no reason to sit on this, even if it were easier to exploit, being that it's a non-essential, third-party service that is easily disabled by even a novice user... going public was and would be the most prudent course of action.
Linux Nvidia drivers don't open an SMB named pipe (which, for added bonus can be used for remote attacks from same domain), so this one exploit is pretty much Windows specific. And yeah, you just proved your point.
so because nvidia software opens a pipe, it's windows fault. well done descartes!
I believe there's no need to have the vulnerable nvsvc32.exe service running. It might break the NVIDIA control panel, but the driver should function properly with that service turned off. You could do that until a fixed version is available. The actual driver is named nvlddmkm.sys.
Apparently, GPS offers more than location and time services. Unfortunately, I think GPS satellites are too high up to be considered "in the cloud." Maybe it's time for a new catchy phrase for them? Cloud 2.0? Or, better yet, Void. "I do all of my computing in the Void" has a nice ring to it.
It never dawned on me until just now, but with all of the added computing required of the GPS satellites, no wonder Apple Maps is having so many problems!
Clearly a windows specific problem.
THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN ON LINUX.... except that one time when it did.
http://www.zdnet.com/privilege-escalation-security-hole-found-in-nvidia-linux-driver-7000001986/
Interestingly, I found my last surviving copy of DOS just the other day. I was planing on firing up the Tandy 1500 laptop to see if it still worked.
Was running with this service disabled for a long time and didn't notice any ill effects except for missing NV Control panel - switching it to Manual or Automatic makes it work again.
Services.msc management console calls it "NVidia Display Driver Service". Just try stopping it first, if you're doubting an AC's word, and check how everything runs for you, then switch it to Disabled.
CP/M.
They're there in their room. You're on your own.
Every update I redisable all the nvidia services, startup tasks, and shell extensions, breaking nothing of value.
I know reading 101 is a fail for most /. users, but for fucks sake even the summary points out it is an NVidia exploit. Or do you somehow think Linux would be magically immune to a kernel level exploit in NVidia drivers?
Good job failing reading 101 yourself.
The summary points out that nVidia's Windows Service is exploitable rather than the display driver itself. Why would you think that would affect Linux?
Oh, and that's without even mentioning that Windows and Linux drivers aren't written in the same language (C++ for Windows, C for Linux) and don't use the same kernel API.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
The NVidia Control Panel has some 'niceties' for folks that don't manually "tweak & tune" their games via the game itself's native configuration files.
(OH, there's MORE TO IT than just that, that's just an example I've used @ times myself from its contents).
For example (since I am a HUGE longtime fan of IDSoftware & a /. member Mr. John Carmack's work)?
DoomCfg.cfg (Doom III) + Quake4.cfg (Quake4) allow a LOT of "little tricks" for both performance or visual quality. You can seriously "adjust" ID's games there, any way you like.
HOWEVER/Per my subject-line above:
What the control panel does is SAVE that for you (since the NVidia driver can override game configuration data for the driver to process), across MANY games!
All so you don't have to do all the reading & study to do it manually, game by game.
* That's about it though... guess it really depends on the user!
APK
P.S.=> More just a "matter of convenience" for users that aren't "big" on tweaking I'd say (however, gaming was what led ME to tweaking tuning my OS, + games, as far back as DOS 5.0 here, so I could get more outta them/more "bang-for-the-buck")...
... apk
You can do that, & "easy as apple pie" too, as follows:
E.G.-> Open NVidia drivers with WinRar & extract out the Display.Driver folder someplace on your harddrive.
(That folder has the libs/dlls & .sys files necessary (+ other 'perhipheral files' too) & the .inf file, for doing exactly what you want!)
Then, just use devmgmt.msc to "update driver" for the video display device (Diplay Adapter) by clicking on it, & then right-clicking to "update driver" by pointing to the place you extract that folder out to on your harddisk.
* And, "voila" - should work!
APK
P.S.=> Should be as simple as that, per your request... IF you try this? Let me know how it works out - should be fine technically, & it's easy to "get out of too" by simply uninstalling the driver IF necesssary (system will default back to last driver or SVGA std.)...
... apk
And also anal about what kinda bullshit services people force to run in the backgrounds.
I sure as hell hope governments keep sensative information a little better then I do =) Wouldnt want the sekrets to the universe and UFOs and free energy get out.
he removed the exploit has anybody made backups and is willing to share them ? Because I have friends that will get into trouble when this is not fixed asap.
Stopped reading there. If they've got local access they can do whatever the hell they want regardless, one more attack vector isn't going to make or break things.
Windows 3.1
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
No, however the Linux Nvidia drivers run in kernel mode (video driver in Vista + runs in user space) and can thus do anything the kernel can do.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Dude, don't try to fuck with me by quoting me and and then misquoting me to argue against me by changing closed source "binary blob" into "C code". I was pointing out the foolishness of accepting closed source binary blobs. Your fuck-headed response was to conflate "closed source code" with "C code", perhaps implying "hard to read or understand code"? Too bad you can't wrap your head around code, or figure out how to get an account on /. instead of living your life anonymously and with extreme cowardice. Other people who can read the code and understand it would appreciate open code as opposed to closed code. Blah, blah, nya-nya-nanny-boo-boo, so there! (Laugh a little, you moron; if you want to argue with me, deal with my arguments rather than making a bitchy straw man argument which you can set on fire. Nobody argued your useless point of view!)
;>p
;>)
!!!
Exactly. Nvidia's binary blob drivers are a disaster waiting to happen on every platform.
I buy ATI whenever I get the chance.
Another exploit for this POS OS.
This one appears to be due to nvidia's binary drivers. Every platform is equally vulnerable to evil kernel level code.
Besides exploits for Windows are so frequent that they are not news. Unless they hit hundreds of thousands of exploits overnight it's just business as usual.
are you aware of any OS that does not suffer by privilege escalation exploits ? if so, be a dear and share it with the rest of us.
What a dumb reply.
There are hundreds of these a year on windows. Windows has so many security problems because it's based on a broken design.
BRO, dont ever, ever, ever get a job in infosec.
With the rash of companies losing all their data in recent years I think he already has.
"Unfortunately the exploit had to be removed, feel free to follow me on Twitter" .. link
AccountKiller
Windows 3.1
... is not an operating system. Try again.