CVE-2022-31613 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Windows, specifically affecting the NVIDIA Cloud Gaming guest driver component. The root cause is a NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) in the kernel mode layer of the driver. This vulnerability can be triggered by any local user on the affected system without requiring any privileges or user interaction. Exploiting this flaw causes the kernel to dereference a NULL pointer, which leads to a kernel panic or system crash (denial of service). The vulnerability affects all versions of the NVIDIA Cloud Gaming guest driver released prior to the August 2022 update, which contains the patch. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.1, reflecting a high severity level, with an attack vector limited to local access (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C). The impact is limited to availability, as confidentiality and integrity are not affected. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication. The vulnerability is relevant for systems running Windows with NVIDIA Cloud Gaming guest drivers, which are typically used in virtualized or cloud gaming environments where GPU resources are shared or virtualized for guest operating systems. The kernel mode nature of the flaw means that a successful exploit can cause a system-wide crash, impacting service availability and potentially disrupting operations relying on GPU-accelerated cloud gaming or virtualization services.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2022-31613 is the potential for denial of service on systems running NVIDIA Cloud Gaming guest drivers on Windows. This can disrupt cloud gaming platforms, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), or other GPU-accelerated virtualized environments that rely on NVIDIA GPUs. Organizations in the entertainment, gaming, and cloud service sectors may experience service outages or degraded performance. Additionally, enterprises using GPU virtualization for AI workloads or remote desktop services could face operational interruptions. Although the vulnerability does not allow privilege escalation or data compromise, repeated crashes could lead to downtime, loss of productivity, and increased operational costs. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but local users with access to affected systems could intentionally or accidentally trigger the crash. In environments with shared or multi-tenant access, this could be leveraged for sabotage or disruption. Given the increasing adoption of GPU virtualization and cloud gaming services in Europe, the vulnerability poses a tangible risk to service availability and business continuity.

1. Immediate deployment of the August 2022 NVIDIA Cloud Gaming guest driver update that patches this vulnerability is critical. Ensure all Windows systems running the affected NVIDIA drivers are updated promptly. 2. Restrict local user access to systems running the vulnerable drivers to trusted personnel only, minimizing the risk of accidental or malicious triggering of the kernel panic. 3. Implement monitoring and alerting for unexpected system crashes or kernel panics on affected hosts to detect potential exploitation attempts early. 4. In virtualized environments, isolate GPU resources and limit guest OS privileges to reduce the attack surface. 5. Conduct regular audits of installed NVIDIA driver versions across the organization to identify and remediate outdated or vulnerable instances. 6. For cloud gaming providers or enterprises using GPU virtualization, consider implementing redundancy and failover mechanisms to maintain service availability in case of crashes. 7. Engage with NVIDIA support channels for any additional security advisories or hotfixes related to this vulnerability. 8. Educate local users about the risks of running untrusted code or commands on systems with vulnerable drivers to prevent inadvertent exploitation.