Virtual Gpu Graphics DriverApplication · Nvidia
CVE-2020-5961
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 vGPU graphics driver for guest OS contains a vulnerability in which an incorrect resource clean up on a failure path can impact the guest VM, leading 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 confidenceThe vulnerability exists in the NVIDIA vGPU graphics driver for guest operating systems. An incorrect resource cleanup routine on a failure path can leave resources unfreed or improperly handled, potentially causing resource exhaustion or undefined behavior in the guest VM, leading to 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 data
Virtual Gpu Graphics DriverApplication
all 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:3.1/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 if guest VM uses NVIDIA vGPU graphics driverCheck the guest operating system's installed display adapters and driver details. On Windows, use Device Manager > Display adapters. On Linux, run 'lspci | grep -i vga' or check /proc/driver/nvidia/version.Affected if The guest VM has an NVIDIA virtual GPU (vGPU) graphics driver installed.
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Confirm the NVIDIA vGPU driver is loadedOn Linux, run 'lsmod | grep nvidia' to check if nvidia driver modules are loaded. On Windows, check Services for NVIDIA-related services or verify driver files exist in System32/drivers.Affected if NVIDIA vGPU driver modules are loaded and active in the guest VM.
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Verify vGPU virtualization feature is enabledCheck the hypervisor configuration to confirm the VM is assigned a virtual GPU profile (e.g., vGPU profile in VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, or Citrix Hypervisor). Consult hypervisor documentation for vGPU assignment status.Affected if The VM has a vGPU device assigned and the paravirtualized NVIDIA driver is interacting with the virtual GPU hardware.
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Confirm driver version is within affected rangeSince all versions of the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Graphics Driver for guest operating systems are affected, compare your installed version to 'all versions'. There is no safe version range.Affected if Any installed version of the NVIDIA vGPU guest driver is present, regardless of version number.
If an NVIDIA vGPU graphics driver is installed and running in a guest virtual machine, the environment is affected by CVE-2020-5961 because all versions of this driver contain the incorrect resource cleanup vulnerability.
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 NVIDIA vGPU software update containing the fix for CVE-2020-5961. Ensure the guest VM is restarted after applying the patched driver to load the corrected resource cleanup logic.
Fix this in Virtual Gpu Graphics Driver
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5961 — 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-2020-5961 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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