# CVE-2018-3979: Denial of service in Nouveau

> A remote attacker can cause a denial of service by tricking a user into visiting a malicious website that exploits the Nouveau GPU driver.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/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:** No
- **Published:** 1 Apr 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-3979, GHSA-m48r-fqqr-r9gc, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-3979

## What is CVE-2018-3979?

CVE-2018-3979 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 1 Apr 2019. 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

A remote denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the way the Nouveau Display Driver (the default Ubuntu Nvidia display driver) handles GPU shader execution. A specially crafted pixel shader can cause remote denial-of-service issues. An attacker can provide a specially crafted website to trigger this vulnerability. This vulnerability can be triggered remotely after the user visits a malformed website. No further user interaction is required. Vulnerable versions include Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64), Nouveau Display Driver NV117 (vermagic: 4.15.0-29-generic SMP mod_unload).

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-3979?

It affects 17 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 745 Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 750 Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 750 Ti Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 840m Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 845m Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 850m Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 860m Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 950m Firmware, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 960m Firmware, Nvidia Grid M30 Firmware, Nvidia Grid M40 Firmware, Nvidia Quadro K1200 Firmware, Nvidia Quadro K2200 Firmware, Nvidia Quadro K620 Firmware, Nvidia Quadro M1000m Firmware, Nvidia Quadro M1200m Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-3979?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-3979 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-3979 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-3979 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-3979 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-3979 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 1 Apr 2019. 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-2018-3979 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. 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-2018-3979/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3979/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-3979
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-3979
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-3979

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3979/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.