Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
Sources: National Vulnerability Database, CISA KEV, Exploit-DB
CVE-2024-0099 Overview
CVE-2024-0099 affects NVIDIA vGPU software for Linux. The vulnerability resides in the Virtual GPU Manager, where a guest operating system can trigger a buffer overrun in the host. Successful exploitation can lead to information disclosure, data tampering, privilege escalation, and denial of service on the hypervisor host.
The weakness is classified as [CWE-120] (Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input). The attack originates from a guest virtual machine and crosses the virtualization boundary into the host, breaking the isolation model that multi-tenant virtualization environments depend on.
Critical Impact
A compromised or malicious guest VM can corrupt host memory in the Virtual GPU Manager, enabling privilege escalation from guest to host and compromising all tenants sharing the hypervisor.
Affected Products
- NVIDIA vGPU software for Linux (Virtual GPU Manager component)
- Hypervisor hosts running affected vGPU Manager versions
- Guest-to-host virtualization boundary on multi-tenant GPU deployments
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-06-13 - CVE-2024-0099 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-0099
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability is a buffer overrun in the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager running on the Linux hypervisor host. The Virtual GPU Manager mediates GPU resource sharing between guest virtual machines and the physical GPU hardware. Data originating from the guest is processed by host-side code paths without sufficient size validation.
An authenticated local actor inside a guest VM can craft input that exceeds the expected buffer size, overwriting adjacent host memory. Because the Virtual GPU Manager executes with elevated privileges on the host, successful corruption can yield confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact on the hypervisor itself.
The cross-tenant implications matter in cloud and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. A single compromised tenant can break isolation and reach workloads belonging to other tenants on the same physical host.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing or insufficient bounds checking on data copied from the guest into host-side buffers inside the Virtual GPU Manager. The code path trusts guest-supplied length or offset values and performs a copy operation that writes beyond the allocated buffer.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires local access with low privileges inside a guest VM and no user interaction. The attacker interfaces with the vGPU paravirtual device from the guest and sends malformed commands or buffers to the Virtual GPU Manager on the host. The scope remains unchanged under CVSS semantics, but practical impact crosses the virtualization boundary.
No public proof-of-concept exploit is listed in the enriched data, and the issue is not present on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. See the NVIDIA Support Article for vendor-specific technical details and affected versions.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-0099
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected crashes, hangs, or restarts of the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager process on hypervisor hosts
- Kernel log entries referencing the nvidia-vgpu-mgr service, segmentation faults, or memory protection violations
- Guest VMs issuing unusually large or malformed vGPU commands prior to host instability
Detection Strategies
- Monitor host-side dmesg and journalctl -u nvidia-vgpu-mgr output for abnormal termination or panic traces
- Baseline the running version of the Virtual GPU Manager across the fleet and alert on hosts running unpatched builds
- Correlate guest VM GPU workload anomalies with host-side vGPU Manager error events to identify a potential escape attempt
Monitoring Recommendations
- Forward hypervisor host logs, including GPU driver and vGPU Manager logs, into a centralized SIEM for correlation across tenants
- Track process integrity of nvidia-vgpu-mgr and alert on unexpected child processes or restarts
- Enable auditd rules on hypervisor hosts to capture privileged syscalls originating from the vGPU Manager context
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-0099
Immediate Actions Required
- Inventory all Linux hypervisor hosts running NVIDIA vGPU software and identify affected Virtual GPU Manager versions
- Apply the vendor-supplied update referenced in the NVIDIA security bulletin as soon as a maintenance window allows
- Restrict guest VM administrative access on multi-tenant hosts until patching is complete
Patch Information
NVIDIA has published fixed versions and remediation guidance in the NVIDIA Support Article. Administrators should consult that advisory to map their deployed Virtual GPU Manager release to a patched build and schedule hypervisor host updates. Patching the Virtual GPU Manager on the host is required; updating only guest drivers does not remediate the host-side buffer overrun.
Workarounds
- Isolate untrusted or externally accessible guest VMs onto hosts that do not use NVIDIA vGPU until patches are deployed
- Limit which tenants and users can allocate vGPU-backed instances to reduce the pool of potential attackers
- Monitor hypervisor hosts closely for vGPU Manager instability as an early signal of exploitation attempts
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
Sources: National Vulnerability Database, CISA KEV, Exploit-DB
