CVE-2017-6260
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 · uneditedNVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer helper function where an incorrect calculation of string length may lead to 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 · moderate confidenceNVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer helper function where an incorrect calculation of string length may lead to denial of service. The flaw exists in the kernel-mode component of the display driver and can be triggered by specially crafted input causing the incorrect string length calculation to result in a crash or system instability.
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
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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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Verify NVIDIA GPU driver is installedOpen Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters', and look for NVIDIA GPU entries (e.g., GeForce, Quadro, Tesla series). Alternatively, run 'nvida-smi' from command line if available.Affected if An NVIDIA GPU with its display driver is present in the system
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Identify the installed driver versionIn Device Manager, right-click the NVIDIA GPU device, select 'Properties', go to the 'Driver' tab, and note the driver version. Alternatively, run 'nvidia-smi' and check the 'Driver Version' field.Affected if Driver version is available and can be compared against fixed releases
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Check the kernel-mode driver file versionNavigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ and locate nvlddmkm.sys (or similar NVIDIA kernel driver file). Right-click, select 'Properties', then view the 'Details' tab for file version information.Affected if The kernel driver file exists and its version can be inspected
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Compare against vendor patch statusContact NVIDIA's security bulletin or your enterprise patch management system to confirm whether your driver version includes the CVE-2017-6260 fix. The patch was released around June 2017.Affected if The driver version predates the security update and has not been patched
A system is affected if it runs an NVIDIA Windows GPU display driver that has not been updated to include the CVE-2017-6260 security patch.
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 dataApply the vendor-supplied security update or upgrade to a patched version of the NVIDIA GPU display driver. Organizations should prioritize patching systems running vulnerable driver versions in production environments.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-6260 — 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-2017-6260 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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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.
- 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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