CVE-2026-65111: NVIDIA NeMo Speech RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2026-65111 Overview

CVE-2026-65111 is a code injection vulnerability [CWE-77] in NVIDIA NeMo Speech affecting all supported platforms. An attacker with local access and low privileges can supply crafted malicious input that the application processes without proper neutralization of special elements. Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution, information disclosure, and data tampering within the context of the NeMo Speech process.

Critical Impact

Local attackers can execute arbitrary code, exfiltrate sensitive data, and modify processed content by injecting commands through NeMo Speech input handling.

Affected Products

• NVIDIA NeMo Speech (all platforms)
• Windows deployments of NVIDIA NeMo Speech
• Linux deployments of NVIDIA NeMo Speech

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-09-22 - CVE-2026-65111 published to NVD
• 2026-09-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-65111

Vulnerability Analysis

The flaw is categorized under CWE-77, Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Command (Command Injection). NVIDIA NeMo Speech accepts attacker-controlled input and passes it to a downstream interpreter or command handler without sufficient sanitization. When the malicious payload is processed, injected commands run with the privileges of the NeMo Speech process.

The attack vector is local, requiring the attacker to already have valid low-privileged access to the target system. No user interaction is required, and exploitation affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the host process. NVIDIA has not published exploitation details in the referenced advisory bundle at the time of writing.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or incomplete input validation on parameters that flow into a command or code execution context inside NeMo Speech. Because special elements are not neutralized before being passed to the interpreter, attacker-supplied strings are treated as executable instructions rather than as data.

Attack Vector

A local authenticated user submits crafted input, such as configuration values, model parameters, or audio processing arguments, to a NeMo Speech component. The injected payload breaks out of the intended data context and is executed by the underlying interpreter. Refer to the GitHub NVIDIA Security Report and the NVD CVE-2026-65111 Details for vendor-provided technical context.

// No verified proof-of-concept code has been published for CVE-2026-65111.
// See the NVIDIA product security advisory for authoritative technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-65111

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected child processes spawned by the NeMo Speech runtime, such as sh, bash, cmd.exe, or powershell.exe.
• Anomalous outbound network connections initiated by the NeMo Speech process to unfamiliar hosts.
• New or modified files in NeMo Speech working directories or model cache paths.
• Log entries showing malformed input strings containing shell metacharacters such as ;, |, `, or $().

Detection Strategies

• Baseline the process tree of NeMo Speech workloads and alert on deviations, particularly interpreter or shell invocations.
• Inspect application logs for input fields containing command separators or substitution sequences.
• Correlate local user activity with NeMo Speech process behavior to identify low-privileged accounts attempting exploitation.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable command-line auditing on hosts running NeMo Speech and forward events to a centralized log platform.
• Monitor file integrity on NeMo Speech installation directories and configuration files.
• Track EPSS scoring updates for CVE-2026-65111 to detect changes in exploitation likelihood.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-65111

Immediate Actions Required

• Inventory all systems running NVIDIA NeMo Speech and identify the installed version.
• Restrict local access to hosts running NeMo Speech to trusted administrators only.
• Review any automation or service accounts that submit input to NeMo Speech for least-privilege compliance.

Patch Information

Apply the fixed release identified in the GitHub NVIDIA Security Report. Consult the CVE.org Record for CVE-2026-65111 for cross-referenced advisory information and version guidance published by NVIDIA.

Workarounds

• Isolate NeMo Speech workloads on dedicated hosts or containers with reduced privileges.
• Enforce strict input validation on any wrapper application that forwards data to NeMo Speech.
• Disable or restrict NeMo Speech interfaces that accept untrusted input until the patch is deployed.

# Example: run NeMo Speech under a dedicated non-privileged user with restricted shell access
sudo useradd --system --shell /usr/sbin/nologin nemo-svc
sudo chown -R nemo-svc:nemo-svc /opt/nemo-speech
sudo -u nemo-svc /opt/nemo-speech/bin/nemo-speech --config /etc/nemo/speech.yaml