Use After FreeWeakness · CWE-416

CVE-2024-12837

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
Software installed and run as a non-privileged user may conduct improper GPU system calls to corrupt kernel heap memory.

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 confidence

A vulnerability in GPU drivers allows non-privileged user applications to make improper system calls that corrupt kernel heap memory, potentially leading to privilege escalation or system instability.

MitigationApply vendor-provided patches or updates to the GPU driver software to remediate improper input validation in GPU system calls.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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. Identify installed GPU drivers
    List installed GPU driver packages or check driver version using system tools such as 'lspci -v | grep -i gpu', 'dpkg --list | grep -i driver', or 'rpm -qa | grep -i driver' depending on your OS
    Affected if GPU drivers from a vendor affected by this vulnerability are installed
  2. Determine GPU driver version
    Use vendor-specific commands to query the installed driver version, such as 'nvidia-smi' for NVIDIA, 'amdgpu-install --version' for AMD, or check /sys/class/drm/ for open-source drivers
    Affected if The installed version falls within the vulnerable version range for your specific GPU vendor
  3. Verify GPU driver is actively loaded
    Check if the GPU driver module is currently loaded in memory using 'lsmod' command to list loaded kernel modules, or check 'dmesg' for driver initialization messages
    Affected if The vulnerable GPU driver module is loaded and running
  4. Confirm user-space GPU utilities have access
    Verify that non-privileged users can access GPU device nodes by checking permissions on /dev/dri/* or /dev/nvidia* and examining if user-space GPU libraries are installed
    Affected if Non-privileged users have access to GPU system call interfaces without additional restrictions
  5. Review GPU-related system calls
    Audit recent system logs (auditd logs, dmesg, syslog) for unusual or repeated GPU-related system calls from user applications, especially IOCTL calls to GPU device files
    Affected if There is evidence of excessive or abnormal GPU system calls from user space applications

Your environment is affected if you have a vulnerable GPU driver version installed and loaded that permits non-privileged user applications to make direct system calls to the GPU driver interface.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor-provided patches or updates to the GPU driver software to remediate improper input validation in GPU system calls.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,980
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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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-2024-12837 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