Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with threats that target various aspects of a system, one of which is CVE-2025-21480. This vulnerability, discovered recently, exploits memory corruption in GPU micronodes to execute unauthorized commands. It affects a wide range of systems and applications that utilize GPUs for processing, making it a critical concern for organizations and users alike. The severity of this vulnerability lies in its potential to compromise the entire system or lead to data leakage, thereby posing a significant threat to data integrity and confidentiality.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-21480
Severity: High, CVSS Score 8.6
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Nvidia GeForce | All versions up to 465.89
AMD Radeon | All versions up to 21.3.2
How the Exploit Works
The CVE-2025-21480 vulnerability arises due to memory corruption that occurs when a GPU micronode executes a particular sequence of commands. The attacker could send these commands over the network to the targeted system’s GPU. The GPU’s micronode, unable to handle these commands properly, results in memory corruption. This flawed state allows the attacker to execute unauthorized commands, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability using a malicious shell command.
# Attacker identifies the target GPU's IP address
TARGET_IP="192.0.2.0"
# Attacker crafts specific sequence of commands that cause memory corruption
MALICIOUS_COMMANDS="..."
# Attacker sends the commands to the target GPU
echo $MALICIOUS_COMMANDS | nc $TARGET_IP 1234This code represents a simple network request to the GPU using its IP address and a sequence of malicious commands. This sequence of commands is the key to exploiting the vulnerability, triggering memory corruption and allowing unauthorized command execution.
Note: The above example is purely conceptual and oversimplified for illustrative purposes. The actual exploitation would involve a much more complex sequence of commands, specific to the GPU’s architecture and the attacker’s objectives.
Mitigation
The best course of action to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor-supplied patch as soon as it becomes available. In the interim, users could employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor network traffic and block any suspicious activity. Regular system updates, along with strong security practices and monitoring, can also help protect against such vulnerabilities.