CVE-2021-34373
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 · uneditedTrusty trusted Linux kernel (TLK) contains a vulnerability in the NVIDIA TLK kernel where a lack of heap hardening could cause heap overflows, which might lead to information disclosure 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 · moderate confidenceThis vulnerability exists in the NVIDIA Trusty Trusted Linux Kernel (TLK), a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) kernel. The lack of heap hardening mechanisms in the TLK kernel allows heap overflow conditions to occur, potentially enabling attackers to overflow heap memory boundaries. This can lead to information disclosure (reading adjacent heap data) or denial of service (memory corruption causing crashes or instability).
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< 32.5.1CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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.
-
Identify if the system is an NVIDIA Jetson deviceCheck the system hardware and product documentation to confirm the device model is an NVIDIA Jetson platform (such as Jetson Nano, Jetson Xavier, or Jetson Orin series)Affected if The system is not an NVIDIA Jetson device - the vulnerability only affects Jetson Linux on Jetson hardware
-
Determine the installed Jetson Linux versionCheck the system for the installed Jetson Linux version using system information tools or version files, then compare the version number to the affected rangeAffected if The installed Jetson Linux version is lower than 32.5.1 (any version below 32.5.1 is affected)
-
Confirm if Trusty TEE is enabledVerify whether the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with Trusty kernel is active on the system, as the vulnerability exists specifically within the TLK kernel componentAffected if Trusty TEE is enabled and running - the vulnerability only applies when Trusty/TLK is actively being used
-
Identify applications or services invoking TEEReview which applications or services on the system are calling TEE services, as the exploit requires invoking TEE functionality to reach the vulnerable TLK kernelAffected if Any applications or services are actively invoking TEE services - this provides the attack surface for exploiting the heap overflow
A system is affected if it is an NVIDIA Jetson device running Jetson Linux version below 32.5.1 with Trusty TEE enabled and actively invoking TEE services.
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 data32.5.1
Apply NVIDIA's security update for TLK when available. Until then, minimize the attack surface by limiting which applications can invoke TEE services and following NVIDIA's hardening guidelines for Trusty deployments.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $15,616.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-34373 — 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-2021-34373 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data