CVE-2017-0355
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAll versions of the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver contain a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer handler for DxgkDdiEscape where it may access paged memory while holding a spinlock, leading to a denial of service.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceAll versions of the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver contain a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer handler for DxgkDdiEscape where it may access paged memory while holding a spinlock, leading to a denial of service (Blue Screen of Death). The bug occurs because the handler runs in a non-pageable context but attempts to access pageable memory, causing a page fault while a spinlock is held.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver is installedOpen Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters', and verify an NVIDIA GPU is listed with a driver loaded. Alternatively, check for NVIDIA driver files in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sysAffected if An NVIDIA GPU with the nvlddmkm.sys driver is present on a Windows system
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Identify the installed NVIDIA driver versionRight-click the NVIDIA GPU in Device Manager, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and note the Driver Version string. Alternatively, run 'driverquery /v | findstr nvlddmkm' from an elevated command promptAffected if The driver version string is populated and shows any version of the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver
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Check if the DxgkDdiEscape handler is reachableThe vulnerability triggers when graphics applications or tools call the DxgkDdiEscape kernel interface. Monitor for use of NVIDIA control panel features, GPU-accelerated applications, or diagnostic tools that invoke kernel mode driver escapesAffected if The system runs any graphics workload or NVIDIA utility that accesses the DxgkDdiEscape interface (typical for any system with active NVIDIA GPU usage)
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Verify the kernel driver file exists and is loadedCheck that C:\Windows\System32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys exists and is listed in the kernel driver list. Run 'sc query nvlddmkm' or check Driver Verifier statusAffected if The nvlddmkm.sys kernel driver file is present and loaded into the Windows kernel
A system is affected if it runs any version of the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver on Windows and uses graphics functionality that triggers the DxgkDdiEscape handler, as all driver versions contain the spinlock/paged memory flaw.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver to a patched version that fixes the paged memory access issue in the DxgkDdiEscape handler. In enterprise environments, test driver updates for compatibility with graphics-intensive applications before deployment.
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- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-0355 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-0355 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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