Tegra X1 FirmwareOperating system · Nvidia

CVE-2017-0866

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-11-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
An elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Direct rendering infrastructure of the NVIDIA Tegra X1 where an unchecked input from userspace is passed as a pointer to kfree. This could lead to kernel memory corruption and possible code execution. This issue is rated as moderate. Product: Pixel. Version: N/A. Android ID: A-38415808. References: N-CVE-2017-0866.

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 confidence

A use-after-free/arbitrary-free vulnerability in the NVIDIA Tegra X1 Direct Rendering Infrastructure where unchecked userspace input is passed directly to the kernel's kfree() function, allowing an attacker to corrupt kernel memory and potentially execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

MitigationApply the vendor security patch for Google Pixel devices (Android bulletin); ensure proper pointer validation is implemented before any kfree() calls in the affected DRI code path.

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 data
Tegra X1 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Tegra X1 hardware in the system
    Check system specifications, boot logs, or /proc/cpuinfo for NVIDIA Tegra X1 or Tegra210 processor identifiers
    Affected if The system is running on NVIDIA Tegra X1 (Tegra210) hardware
  2. Verify Direct Rendering Infrastructure is active
    Check for DRI driver modules in /sys/module or /proc/modules, or examine /dev/dri/ for rendering device nodes
    Affected if DRI kernel modules are loaded and DRI devices are present
  3. Confirm userspace can access GPU rendering
    Review permissions on /dev/dri/* device files and check if any userspace graphics applications have access
    Affected if Non-privileged users or untrusted applications can access the DRI interface
  4. Check for vendor firmware/patch status
    Consult the device vendor or Android bulletin for CVE-2017-0866 patch status specific to the Tegra X1 firmware version in use
    Affected if The installed firmware predates the CVE-2017-0866 patch or no patch has been applied

A system is affected if it runs NVIDIA Tegra X1 hardware with DRI enabled and the firmware has not been patched for CVE-2017-0866, as the vulnerability allows untrusted userspace to trigger unsafe kfree() calls through the DRI interface.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor security patch for Google Pixel devices (Android bulletin); ensure proper pointer validation is implemented before any kfree() calls in the affected DRI code path.

Fix this in Tegra X1 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,780
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-0866 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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