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NULL Pointer DereferenceWeakness · CWE-476

CVE-2025-23300

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
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
NVIDIA Display Driver for Linux contains a vulnerability in the kernel driver, where a user could cause a null pointer dereference by allocating a specific memory resource. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to 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 confidence

NVIDIA Display Driver for Linux contains a null pointer dereference vulnerability in its kernel driver component. A local user can trigger this by allocating a specific memory resource, causing the driver to dereference a null pointer and result in a denial of service.

MitigationApply the NVIDIA-provided security update for the Display Driver when released. As this is a kernel-mode driver vulnerability, no workarounds are available; immediate patching is the only remediation.

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if NVIDIA display driver is loaded
    Run 'lsmod | grep nvidia' to list loaded NVIDIA kernel modules, or check '/proc/driver/nvidia/version' for the driver version file
    Affected if No NVIDIA driver modules are loaded indicates the driver is not installed and the system is not affected
  2. Retrieve the installed NVIDIA driver version
    Execute 'cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version' or run 'nvidia-smi' and note the 'Driver Version' field
    Affected if The displayed version falls within any affected version range (compare against NVIDIA security bulletins for CVE-2025-23300)
  3. Confirm the kernel driver component is active
    Check that the nvidia.ko or nvidia_*.ko kernel module is loaded via 'lsmod | grep nvidia' and verify the driver is handling display outputs
    Affected if The driver module is loaded and handling graphics operations - the null pointer dereference occurs in the kernel driver when triggered by a local user allocating the specific memory resource

If the NVIDIA Display Driver for Linux is installed and its kernel module is loaded, compare the driver version against the affected versions listed in the NVIDIA security advisory for CVE-2025-23300 to determine exposure.

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 the NVIDIA-provided security update for the Display Driver when released. As this is a kernel-mode driver vulnerability, no workarounds are available; immediate patching is the only remediation.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
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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-2025-23300 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