Nvidia releases security update for out-of-support GPUs
Nvidia published a security bulletin on May 16, 2022 in which it informs customers about a new software security update for the Nvidia GPU display driver. The update patches security issues in earlier driver versions that can lead to "denial of service, information disclosure, or data tampering".
While it is common for companies to release security updates for their software applications and drivers, it is uncommon to receive updates for products that are not supported anymore.
In this particular case, Nvidia released security updates for Kepler-series graphics adapters that it no longer supports officially with Game Ready Drivers.
The company retired most products belonging to the GTX 600 and GTX 700 Kepler series in 2021. The first Kepler-based video cards were released in 2012 by Nvidia. The full list of
Retired products are still usable, but Nvidia won't release Game Ready drivers for these products anymore once they retire. Nvidia did promise to release security updates for the products until 2024 to address security issues in drivers.
The Windows release notes highlight that the update has been released for Nvidia products that are no longer supported by Game Ready Drivers.
NVIDIA has released a software security update display driver for desktop Kepler-series GeForce GPUs which are no longer supported by Game Ready Drivers. This update addresses issues that may lead to multiple security impacts.
Windows and Linux versions of the drivers are affected according to the security bulletin.
The updates can be downloaded from Nvidia's downloads website. All it takes is to use the drop down menus at the top to display available drivers for the selected product.
The security bulletin lists a total of ten vulnerabilities in Nvidia GPU display drivers. Most are vulnerabilities in the kernel mode layer on Windows and Linux devices, while some address security issues in the DirectX11 user mode driver on Windows, or a vulnerability in the ECC layer.
Nvidia released driver updates for most supported products as well. Nvidia Studio and Tesla R510 updates are expected in the week of May 23, 2022. All other supported products have received security updates already.
Now You: how frequently do you update drivers on your systems?
Right after the NVIDIA “upgrade”
via UBUNTU 20.04 Software Update,
my Rstudio prog (latest version),
would open
and …immediately close (pooofff!).
Tried opening Rstudio several times,
but same result.
Oh, no…!
My SOL (=it worked):
REstart my PC,
(pls, standby for a 60-second sigh of relief…).
Just sharing
w/ my fellow Ghacks colleagues
in case of similar event.
Best to all & Peace
from San Francisco!.
+1. Consider also NVCleanInstall https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/
You may also consider NVIDIA driver slimming utility | guru3D Forums,
Latest version 0.13 (2022/03/18)
[https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvidia-driver-slimming-utility.423072/]
Hmmmm… Even though there’s a Keppler GPU in my machine it would appear that this particular one which is a GeForce 750M running on a Windows 8.1 machine is not supported: https://i.postimg.cc/fbg8kSCr/Ge-Force-750-M-not-supported-on-Windows-8-1.png
Because Nvidia prefer that you buy a new laptop. Same silicon/arch doesn’t mean they will get same support.
As a gamer I update my GPU drivers often.
I always repackage them with NVSlimmer first to remove the tons and tons of bloatware.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/nvslimmer.html
Thank you Martin, appreciate you!
I update my graphics drivers maybe twice a year unless there is a security update like this one. And I sometimes use NVCleanstall to install the driver, this time I did but last time I did not.
I’ve been using a ram disk (for system temp files and browser cache) for a couple years now on this laptop and the graphics driver always fails to install the first time. I would think that a 2.5GB ram disk would be plenty big enough but apparently not. ;)
Definitely off topic but for those that are curious I’m using a 1TB Intel 660p NVMe M.2 drive which does great with power consumption and heat but isn’t terribly fast, a ram disk is stupid fast. I’m seeing over 10,000 MB/s sequential write speeds using CrystalDiskMark. I use a 1GB cache size for Firefox and a 250MB cache size for Vivaldi Snapshot and for Chrome. Temp and cache files are removed when rebooting and most days I do a restart. I’m also using the free version of SoftPerfect RAM Disk which has a max disk size limit of 4GB which basically means that 4027MB will be the maximum size allowed. This laptop has 16GB of ram so running a ram disk is not an issue. With a 2TB GeForce MX250 25w gpu and a ram disk browser rendering is very fast and high fps video works very well! Anyway…
Peace!!!
>Now You: how frequently do you update drivers on your systems?
My home Dell laptop checks for drivers and other updates every two weeks automatically, and usually there are updates. Also Nvidia periodically checks for an RTX Studio driver update.
Unless i’m mistaken you didn’t clarify if we need to dl this security update directly from Nvidia’s website or if the update will eventually show up in the windows updates?
thx
You may want to download the update manually and install it.
Excellent news for Linux and Windows users alike.
Thanks, Martin for bringing such good news this morning.
The last Nvidia update I received was from 2022-01-31.
I was already wondering what was going to happen.
To bad that Nivida after 2024 also stops supporting, security-wise their product.
Or should I say totally stop supporting there to us sold product?
It still feels like you bought a product without the seller stating that after a couple of years (Let’s say for example 10 years) the product is not yours anymore.
For example, you bought a coal stove but after a few years, you are not allowed to clean it or have it repaired. I still find it strange.
so u expect them to support u security wise forever. that is not realistic. it just like telling linux mint to support 18 or microsoft supporting windows xp. buying hardware do entitled u forever software update, not even amd will do that