CVE-2022-34665 is a vulnerability identified in the NVIDIA GPU Display Driver specifically affecting the NVIDIA Cloud Gaming components, including the guest driver and the Virtual GPU Manager, on both Windows and Linux platforms. The root cause of this vulnerability is a NULL pointer dereference (classified under CWE-476) within the kernel mode layer of the driver. This flaw can be triggered by a local user possessing limited privileges (low-level local privileges) without requiring any user interaction. When exploited, the NULL pointer dereference causes the affected driver to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability affects all versions of the NVIDIA Cloud Gaming drivers released prior to the August 2022 update. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.5, indicating a medium severity level, with an attack vector classified as local (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring low privileges (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C). The impact is limited to availability (A:H), with no confidentiality or integrity impact. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no official patches are linked in the provided data, although the August 2022 release presumably addresses the issue. This vulnerability is significant in environments where NVIDIA Cloud Gaming technology is deployed, especially in multi-tenant or virtualized GPU scenarios where multiple users or processes share GPU resources, as a local attacker could disrupt service availability by crashing the GPU driver kernel component.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2022-34665 is the potential disruption of services relying on NVIDIA Cloud Gaming infrastructure or virtual GPU deployments. This includes cloud gaming providers, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments, and enterprises utilizing GPU virtualization for compute workloads. The denial of service caused by the NULL pointer dereference could lead to system instability, service outages, and degraded user experience. In sectors such as media, entertainment, and cloud service providers, this could translate into financial losses and reputational damage. Additionally, organizations using NVIDIA virtual GPU technology for AI, machine learning, or high-performance computing might face interruptions in critical workloads. Although the vulnerability requires local access, in shared or multi-tenant environments, a low-privileged user could exploit this flaw to impact other users or services, raising concerns about multi-user isolation and service reliability. However, since there is no confidentiality or integrity impact, data breaches or unauthorized data manipulation are not direct consequences of this vulnerability.

To mitigate CVE-2022-34665, European organizations should prioritize updating NVIDIA Cloud Gaming drivers and Virtual GPU Manager components to versions released in or after August 2022, which address this vulnerability. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible, implementing strict access controls to limit local user privileges and prevent untrusted users from executing code on systems with vulnerable drivers is critical. Employing kernel-level security mechanisms such as driver signature enforcement and kernel lockdown features can reduce the risk of exploitation. Additionally, monitoring system logs for GPU driver crashes or abnormal behavior can help detect attempted exploitation. For multi-tenant cloud or virtualized environments, isolating GPU resources per tenant and enforcing strict user separation can minimize the blast radius of a potential denial of service. Organizations should also review and harden their endpoint security policies to prevent unauthorized local access. Finally, engaging with NVIDIA support channels to obtain official patches and security advisories is recommended to stay current with any further developments.