# CVE-2017-6259: Denial of service in NVIDIA GPU Display Driver

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in NVIDIA GPU drivers by triggering an invalid state in the kernel mode layer handler.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.1 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Jul 2017
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2017-6259, GHSA-h9mp-66gm-w56r, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-6259

## What is CVE-2017-6259?

CVE-2017-6259 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Nvidia Gpu Driver, published on 28 Jul 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

NVIDIA GPU Display Driver contains a vulnerability in the kernel mode layer handler where an incorrect detection and recovery from an invalid state produced by specific user actions may lead to denial of service.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-6259?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nvidia Gpu Driver.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-6259?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2017-6259 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6259 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## 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-2017-6259 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-6259 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Nvidia Gpu Driver, published on 28 Jul 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6259 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2017-6259/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6259/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-6259
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-6259
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-6259

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6259/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.