CVE-2025-33217: NVIDIA Display Driver Use After Free Flaw

CVE-2025-33217 Overview

CVE-2025-33217 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows. An authenticated local attacker can trigger the flaw to reference freed memory during driver operation. Successful exploitation can lead to code execution, escalation of privileges, data tampering, denial of service, and information disclosure.

The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-416: Use After Free and requires local access with low privileges. No user interaction is needed to trigger the condition. NVIDIA published a security bulletin addressing the issue in the NVIDIA Support Article.

Critical Impact
A local attacker who exploits this use-after-free can gain SYSTEM-level code execution on affected Windows hosts running vulnerable NVIDIA display drivers.

Affected Products

NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows (see the NVIDIA Support Article for affected branches)
Windows endpoints and workstations running vulnerable NVIDIA GPU driver builds
Systems using NVIDIA GPU compute or graphics workloads on Windows

Discovery Timeline

2026-01-28 - CVE-2025-33217 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-33217

Vulnerability Analysis

The flaw is a use-after-free condition in the NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows. The driver dereferences a pointer to a kernel object after that object has already been released. When an attacker controls allocation timing, the freed memory can be reclaimed and populated with attacker-supplied data before the stale pointer is used.

Because the driver runs in kernel mode, dereferencing the reclaimed memory allows the attacker to influence kernel control flow or corrupt kernel state. This produces the impact set described in the advisory: arbitrary code execution, elevation of privilege to SYSTEM, tampering with kernel data, denial of service through bugchecks, and disclosure of adjacent kernel memory.

The attack is local. The adversary must already have code execution as a low-privileged user on the target host, for example after initial access through phishing or a foothold in a standard user session.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper lifetime management of a driver object referenced through IOCTL or graphics API calls. The driver releases the object without invalidating all outstanding references. A subsequent operation reuses the dangling pointer, which now points to attacker-controlled memory.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is local. An authenticated user issues crafted requests to the NVIDIA kernel driver through its device interface. By racing allocation and free operations, the attacker forces the driver to operate on freed memory. See the NVD CVE-2025-33217 Record for the authoritative technical summary. No public proof-of-concept exploit code is available at the time of publication.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-33217

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected Windows bugchecks referencing NVIDIA driver modules such as nvlddmkm.sys in crash dumps
Standard user processes opening handles to NVIDIA GPU device objects followed by SYSTEM-level child processes
Anomalous kernel-mode memory allocation patterns preceding driver crashes on GPU-equipped hosts

Detection Strategies

Hunt for local privilege escalation chains that begin with a non-privileged process and end with SYSTEM token acquisition on hosts running NVIDIA drivers
Correlate Windows Error Reporting (WER) events and minidumps that implicate NVIDIA driver components with recent process activity from the same user session
Inventory installed NVIDIA driver versions across the fleet and flag any host below the fixed build identified in the vendor advisory

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable kernel crash dump collection and forward WER telemetry to a central SIEM or data lake for correlation
Monitor for new or unsigned kernel drivers loading on GPU-equipped endpoints, and alert on privilege transitions from medium to high integrity without a known escalation path
Track EDR telemetry for IOCTL activity against NVIDIA device objects issued by unusual processes such as browsers, Office applications, or scripting hosts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-33217

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the NVIDIA driver update referenced in the NVIDIA Support Article to all Windows hosts running affected driver branches
Prioritize patching on multi-user systems, virtual desktop infrastructure, and developer workstations where local low-privilege access is common
Restrict local user access on high-value hosts until the driver update is deployed

Patch Information

NVIDIA has released updated Windows display drivers that remediate the use-after-free. Refer to the vendor bulletin at the NVIDIA Support Article for the fixed driver versions per product branch and download links. Deploy the update through your standard driver management workflow, GPU vendor tools, or endpoint configuration management platform.

Workarounds

No official workaround is documented by NVIDIA; installing the patched driver is the supported remediation
Limit interactive logon rights on GPU-equipped servers and shared workstations to reduce the local attack surface
Enforce application control policies that prevent unauthorized binaries from issuing IOCTLs to GPU device interfaces

bash

# Query installed NVIDIA driver version on Windows via PowerShell
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PnPSignedDriver |
  Where-Object { $_.DeviceName -like "*NVIDIA*" } |
  Select-Object DeviceName, DriverVersion, DriverDate