# CVE-2016-8806: Privilege escalation in Quadro, NVS, and GeForce (all versions)

> An attacker can exploit a pointer validation flaw in the NVIDIA Windows GPU driver to escalate privileges or cause a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Nov 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-74g6-576p-qjrm

## What is CVE-2016-8806?

CVE-2016-8806 is a high-severity vulnerability in Nvidia Gpu Driver, published on 8 Nov 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

For the NVIDIA Quadro, NVS, and GeForce products, NVIDIA Windows GPU Display Driver R340 before 342.00 and R375 before 375.63 contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer (nvlddmkm.sys) handler for DxgDdiEscape ID 0x5000027 where a pointer passed from an user to the driver is used without validation, leading to denial of service or potential escalation of privileges.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8806?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nvidia Gpu Driver.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8806?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-8806 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-8806 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8806 exists.

Public exploit code:

- NVIDIA Driver - Unchecked User-Provided Pointer in Escape 0x5000027 (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Nvidia Gpu Driver

- [CVE-2019-5684](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5684/): Memory corruption in GPU Display Driver (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2015-5053](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5053/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2013-5986](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-5986/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2019-5685](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5685/): Memory corruption in GPU Display Driver (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-6247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6247/): Null dereference in GPU Display Driver (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8806 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8806 is a high-severity vulnerability in Nvidia Gpu Driver, published on 8 Nov 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8806 exists.

Affected product: Nvidia Gpu Driver. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8806/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8806/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8806
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8806
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8806

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8806/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.