CVE-2021-1089
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 GPU Display Driver for Windows contains a vulnerability in nvidia-smi where an uncontrolled DLL loading path may lead to arbitrary code execution, denial of service, information disclosure, and data tampering.
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 confidenceThis is an uncontrolled DLL loading path vulnerability in nvidia-smi (NVIDIA System Management Interface) on Windows. An attacker could place a malicious DLL in a location where nvidia-smi.exe searches for DLLs, causing it to load the attacker's DLL instead of the legitimate one, leading to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running nvidia-smi.
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>= 427.33, < 427.48>= 452.96, < 453.10>= 462.31, < 462.96CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed NVIDIA GPU driver versionOpen Command Prompt and run: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=driver_version --format=csv,noheader. Alternatively, open Device Manager, expand Display adapters, right-click the NVIDIA GPU, select Properties, and check the Driver version field.Affected if The displayed version falls within these ranges: 427.33 to 427.47, 452.96 to 453.09, or 462.31 to 462.95
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Verify nvidia-smi executable locationOpen Command Prompt and run: where nvidia-smi. This shows all directories in PATH where nvidia-smi.exe exists.Affected if Multiple instances of nvidia-smi.exe exist in accessible locations, or the first found location is in a user-writable directory such as a downloads folder or network share
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Check current working directory when running nvidia-smiBefore running nvidia-smi, check your current directory with: cd. If running nvidia-smi from a directory you control or a shared/network directory, note that location.Affected if You typically run nvidia-smi from directories that are writable by other users, such as shared folders, temp directories, or network drives
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Inspect DLL search path behaviorRun: nvidia-smi from different directories and observe if it executes successfully. An attacker could place a malicious DLL with a common name (such as msvcp140.dll, vcruntime140.dll, or other NVIDIA-related DLLs) in the directory where nvidia-smi is launched.Affected if nvidia-smi can be launched from arbitrary directories and loads DLLs without full path specification, making it vulnerable to DLL planting attacks
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Review NVIDIA driver installation path permissionsCheck the permissions on C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\ and subdirectories. Run: icacls 'C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation' to list who can write to these folders.Affected if Non-admin users or attacker-controlled accounts have Write permission to the NVIDIA installation directory, allowing placement of malicious DLLs
You are affected if your installed driver version is 427.33-427.47, 452.96-453.09, or 462.31-462.95 AND you run nvidia-smi from writable or shared directories where an attacker could place a malicious DLL.
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 data427.48453.10462.96
Update to the patched version of the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver. Avoid running nvidia-smi from untrusted or writable directories and ensure only signed, legitimate DLLs are loaded.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1089 — 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-2021-1089 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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