CVE-2021-1121

Cross-vGPU denial of service via resource starvation

Published Oct 29, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024

Resource exhaustion in NVIDIA vGPU Software allows guest OS users to interrupt other vGPUs sharing the same physical GPU. The Virtual GPU Manager kernel driver fails to enforce per-vGPU resource limits, letting one vGPU starve peer vGPUs of shared GPU resources. The issue requires low-privilege control of a guest OS using a vGPU; affected branches are 13.x before 13.1, 12.x before 12.4, 11.x before 11.6, and 8.x before 8.9, and the reported consequence is service interruption rather than data access or modification.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.22%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in NVIDIA vGPU Software allows guest OS users to interrupt other vGPUs sharing the same physical GPU. The Virtual GPU Manager kernel driver fails to enforce per-vGPU resource limits, letting one vGPU starve peer vGPUs of shared GPU resources. The issue requires low-privilege control of a guest OS using a vGPU; affected branches are 13.x before 13.1, 12.x before 12.4, 11.x before 11.6, and 8.x before 8.9, and the reported consequence is service interruption rather than data access or modification.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-1121
Published
Oct 29, 2021
Updated
Aug 3, 2024
Vendor
NVIDIA
Product
NVIDIA vGPU Software
Classifications
CWE-770, T1499.004
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 29, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 3, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=vGPU version 13.x (prior to 13.1), 12.x (prior to 12.4), version 11.x (prior to 11.6) and version 8.x (prior 8.9).

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

NVIDIA · NVIDIA vGPU Softwareversion=vGPU version 13.x (prior to 13.1), 12.x (prior to 12.4), version 11.x (prior to 11.6) and version 8.x (prior 8.9).

Published CVSS scores

5.5NVIDIA CorporationCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
2.1NIST NVDAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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