CVE-2017-6270
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 handler for DxgkDdiCreateAllocation where untrusted user input is used as a divisor without validation during a calculation which may lead to a potential divide by zero and 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 confidenceNVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver contains a divide-by-zero vulnerability in the kernel mode layer handler for DxgkDdiCreateAllocation where untrusted user input is used as a divisor without validation, leading to potential denial of service.
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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Identify NVIDIA GPU driver installationOpen Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters', and check if an NVIDIA GPU is listed. Alternatively, run 'nvidia-smi' from command prompt if installed.Affected if No NVIDIA GPU adapter is found in Device Manager or nvidia-smi fails, the system is not affected by this specific CVE.
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Retrieve NVIDIA driver versionIn Device Manager, right-click the NVIDIA GPU, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and note the Driver Version. Or run 'nvidia-smi' and check the 'Driver Version' field.Affected if According to the CVE, all versions of the NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver are affected. Any installed driver version indicates potential vulnerability.
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Verify kernel mode driver presenceCheck if the NVIDIA kernel mode driver (nvlddmkm.sys) exists in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ or check the loaded modules using 'driverquery /v | findstr nvlddmkm'Affected if If the nvlddmkm.sys driver is loaded or present, the DxgkDdiCreateAllocation handler is present and potentially exploitable.
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Confirm DirectX/graphics workload capabilityVerify the system has DirectX capability by running 'dxdiag' and checking the Display tab, or check if graphics-intensive applications are in use.Affected if Any system with DirectX rendering capability will exercise the vulnerable DxgkDdiCreateAllocation code path during graphics allocation operations.
If an NVIDIA GPU display driver is installed on Windows, the system is affected because the vulnerability exists in all versions of the driver in the DxgkDdiCreateAllocation handler.
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 patch/update for the NVIDIA GPU display driver to address the missing input validation in the DxgkDdiCreateAllocation handler.
- 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-2017-6270 — 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-2017-6270 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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