Shield ExperienceApplication · Nvidia

CVE-2021-1068

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-01-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.2.2 or later.
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
NVIDIA SHIELD TV, all versions prior to 8.2.2, contains a vulnerability in the NVDEC component, in which an attacker can read from or write to a memory location that is outside the intended boundary of the buffer, which may lead to denial of service or 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 · high confidence

Out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability in the NVDEC (NVIDIA video decoder) component on NVIDIA SHIELD TV devices prior to firmware version 8.2.2. The vulnerability allows a local attacker to read from or write to memory locations outside the intended buffer boundaries, potentially leading to denial of service or privilege escalation.

MitigationUpdate NVIDIA SHIELD TV firmware to version 8.2.2 or later to patch the vulnerability.

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
Shield ExperienceApplication
Affected:< 8.2.2

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:3.1/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. Confirm device is NVIDIA SHIELD TV
    Check the device model in Settings > About > Device name or look for the SHIELD TV hardware unit
    Affected if Device is not an NVIDIA SHIELD TV (this CVE affects only SHIELD TV devices)
  2. Check Shield Experience firmware version
    Navigate to Settings > About > Version on the NVIDIA SHIELD TV and note the displayed version number
    Affected if Version number is lower than 8.2.2 (for example, 8.2.1, 8.1.0, etc.)
  3. Verify NVDEC component presence
    The NVDEC (NVIDIA Video Decoder) is a built-in component of the SHIELD TV firmware and is present by default on all affected versions; no manual check needed as it is always accessible to local attackers on vulnerable firmware
    Affected if Device runs vulnerable firmware (any version below 8.2.2) and NVDEC is present (which it always is on SHIELD TV)

The device is affected if it is an NVIDIA SHIELD TV running Shield Experience firmware version 8.2.1 or lower, since the out-of-bounds memory access flaw exists in the NVDEC component on those versions.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.2.2 or later
Fixed in 8.2.2
Interim mitigation

Update NVIDIA SHIELD TV firmware to version 8.2.2 or later to patch the vulnerability.

Fix this in Shield Experience Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1068 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-1068 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data