Re: Re: CVE Request: NVidia Linux driver

[Marc Deslauriers <marc.deslauriers () canonical com>]

On Wed, 2012-08-01 at 15:12 +0200, Tavis Ormandy wrote:
> Marc Deslauriers <marc.deslauriers () canonical com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > Could a CVE please be assigned to the following issue:
> >
> > The binary NVidia Linux driver allows local users to access arbitrary
> > memory locations by leveraging GPU device-node read/write privileges, and
> > escalate privileges to root. Possibly an incomplete fix for CVE-2012-0946.
> >
> > See:
> >
> > http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Aug/4
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Marc.
>
> I know that at least Gentoo does this since ~2006:
>
> 35 # !!! SECURITY WARNING !!!
> 36 # DO NOT MODIFY OR REMOVE THE DEVICE FILE RELATED OPTIONS UNLESS YOU KNOW
> 37 # WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
> 38 # ONLY ADD TRUSTED USERS TO THE VIDEO GROUP, THESE USERS MAY BE ABLE TO
> CRASH,
> 39 # COMPROMISE, OR IRREPARABLY DAMAGE THE MACHINE.
> 40 options nvidia NVreg_DeviceFileMode=432 NVreg_DeviceFileUID=0
> NVreg_DeviceFileGID=VIDEOGID NVreg_ModifyDeviceFiles=1
>
>
> http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers/files/nvidia?revision=1.3&view=markup


Well, getting rid of static groups like that is what consolekit and udev
are for. Ideally, permissions would be granted on the device based on
which user is at the console, as it currently done with other devices.
Unfortunately, the design of the binary driver makes it hard to do, as
it resets permissions itself when X loads.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/979307

Marc.