CVE-2025-33217
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 Display Driver for Windows contains a vulnerability where an attacker could trigger a use after free. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to code execution, escalation of privileges, data tampering, denial of service, and information disclosure.
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 confidenceNVIDIA Display Driver for Windows contains a use-after-free vulnerability where memory is accessed after being freed, potentially allowing an attacker to achieve code execution, privilege escalation, or denial of service.
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm NVIDIA display driver is installedOpen Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters', and check if an NVIDIA GPU is listed. Alternatively, check the Windows Registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer for driver information.Affected if No NVIDIA display driver is present, the system is not affected by this CVE.
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Locate the NVIDIA display driver versionIn Device Manager, right-click the NVIDIA GPU, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and note the Driver Version. Alternatively, right-click the NVIDIA desktop icon and select 'Control Panel' or run 'nvidia-smi' from command line to retrieve driver version details.Affected if Unable to determine driver version means the check is inconclusive.
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Compare your installed version against NVIDIA's affected rangeCross-reference the obtained driver version number with NVIDIA's official security bulletin for CVE-2025-33217 to determine if it falls within the affected version range.Affected if Driver version falls within the vulnerable version range specified by NVIDIA for this CVE.
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Verify the driver is actively loadedOpen Task Manager, go to the Processes or Details tab, and check if 'nvvad' (NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device), 'nvdisplay.container', or other NVIDIA driver processes are running.Affected if The vulnerability only applies when the NVIDIA display driver components are actively loaded and in use.
A system is affected only if it has an NVIDIA display driver for Windows installed with a version number that falls within the vulnerable range published by NVIDIA for CVE-2025-33217.
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 dataApply the NVIDIA security update for display drivers once released; until then, restrict local access to trusted users only and monitor for anomalous driver behavior.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-33217 — 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-2025-33217 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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