dbcve.org
Out-of-bounds WriteWeakness · CWE-787

CVE-2024-21979

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-04-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
55/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An out of bounds write vulnerability in the AMD Radeon™ user mode driver for DirectX® 11 could allow an attacker with access to a malformed shader to potentially achieve arbitrary code execution.

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

An out-of-bounds write vulnerability exists in the AMD Radeon user mode driver for DirectX 11. Attackers can exploit this by supplying a malformed shader, causing memory corruption that could lead to arbitrary code execution in kernel context.

MitigationApply AMD's patched graphics driver update. In enterprise environments, identify affected systems, test the driver update thoroughly, and deploy via standard patch management processes.

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
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

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 AMD Radeon GPU presence
    Open Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters', and look for an AMD Radeon graphics card listed
    Affected if No AMD Radeon GPU is found, this CVE does not apply
  2. Locate the AMD Radeon user mode driver version
    Right-click the AMD GPU in Device Manager, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and note the Driver Version field
    Affected if The driver version cannot be retrieved or the system uses a different vendor's GPU
  3. Confirm DirectX 11 usage context
    Check system DirectX version by running 'dxdiag' from Run dialog, look for DirectX 11 capability under the Display tabs
    Affected if DirectX 11 is not available or not in use, the specific attack surface may not be exposed
  4. Compare driver version to vendor advisory
    Cross-reference the noted driver version number against AMD's official security advisory for CVE-2024-21979 to determine if it falls within the affected version range
    Affected if The installed driver version matches a version range AMD has listed as affected in their security bulletin

A system is affected if it contains an AMD Radeon GPU running a user mode driver version within the range specified by AMD's advisory for this DirectX 11 out-of-bounds write vulnerability.

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 AMD's patched graphics driver update. In enterprise environments, identify affected systems, test the driver update thoroughly, and deploy via standard patch management processes.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,096.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-21979 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2024-21979 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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.

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