Kernel privilege escalation via dangling thread-state pointer
Published Oct 10, 2025 · Updated Oct 10, 2025
Use-after-free in the NVIDIA Linux display driver allows local users to execute code with kernel privileges through device ioctls. The nvidia.ko threadStateInit function inserts a stack-allocated threadState node into a global tree, but an intervening kernel oops frees the task stack before threadStateFree removes the node. A local unprivileged process can trigger the oops through accessible device ioctls, then reuse the dangling kernel-stack pointer to read and write kernel memory and gain root privileges.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the NVIDIA Linux display driver allows local users to execute code with kernel privileges through device ioctls. The nvidia.ko threadStateInit function inserts a stack-allocated threadState node into a global tree, but an intervening kernel oops frees the task stack before threadStateFree removes the node. A local unprivileged process can trigger the oops through accessible device ioctls, then reuse the dangling kernel-stack pointer to read and write kernel memory and gain root privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-23280
- Published
- Oct 10, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 10, 2025
- Vendor
- DPDK Project
- Product
- NVIDIA RTX/Quadro/NVS Driver
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 10, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 10, 2025Record 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.
- Affected versionversion=All driver versions prior to 535.274.02
- Affected versionversion=All driver versions prior to 570.195.03
- Affected versionversion=All driver versions prior to 580.95.05
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Public exploit references
- Quarkslab NVIDIA Linux driver proof of conceptfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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