CVE-2017-6278
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 Tegra kernel contains a vulnerability in the CORE DVFS Thermal driver where there is the potential to read or write a buffer using an index or pointer that references a memory location after the end of the buffer, which may lead to a denial of service or possible escalation of privileges.
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 Tegra kernel contains an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability in the CORE DVFS Thermal driver, where improper bounds checking allows reading or writing beyond allocated buffer boundaries, potentially leading to denial of service or privilege escalation.
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<= 24.2.2<= 28.1<= 21.6<= 21.6CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Tegra hardware modelCheck system information for NVIDIA Jetson Tx1, Jetson Tk1, or Tegra K1 by running 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' or checking '/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model' or '/proc/device-tree/model'Affected if The system is not one of the listed affected products (Jetson Tx1, Jetson Tk1, or Tegra K1)
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Check Jetson Tx1 firmware versionRun 'cat /etc/nv_tegra_release' or check the bootloader version on Jetson Tx1. Compare the firmware revision (24.2.2 or 28.1 and earlier) against the affected versionsAffected if Firmware version is 24.2.2 or earlier, or 28.1 or earlier on Jetson Tx1
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Check Jetson Tk1 firmware versionRun 'cat /etc/nv_tegra_release' or check the bootloader version on Jetson Tk1. Compare the firmware revision (21.6 and earlier) against the affected versionAffected if Firmware version is 21.6 or earlier on Jetson Tk1
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Check Tegra K1 firmware versionRun 'cat /etc/nv_tegra_release' or check the bootloader version on Tegra K1. Compare the firmware revision (21.6 and earlier) against the affected versionAffected if Firmware version is 21.6 or earlier on Tegra K1
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Verify DVFS Thermal driver is activeCheck if the CORE DVFS Thermal driver is loaded by examining kernel modules ('lsmod | grep dvfs_thermal') or driver status in '/sys/kernel/debug/tegra_thermal' or similar thermal driver pathsAffected if DVFS Thermal driver is loaded and the hardware/firmware version is in the affected range
A user is affected if they are running NVIDIA Jetson Tx1 (firmware <= 24.2.2 or <= 28.1), Jetson Tk1 (firmware <= 21.6), or Tegra K1 (firmware <= 21.6) with the DVFS Thermal driver enabled.
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 kernel/firmware updates provided by NVIDIA or device manufacturers that address the out-of-bounds access vulnerability in the DVFS Thermal driver.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-6278 — 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-2017-6278 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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