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CVE-2025-33221 NVIDIA CVE debrief

CVE-2025-33221 is a medium-severity vulnerability in NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows and Linux, affecting the kernel driver component. The vulnerability involves incorrect permission assignment for a critical resource (CWE-20), which could allow an authenticated local attacker with high privileges to cause data tampering and denial of service. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) indicates local attack vector, low attack complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction, and high availability impact with no confidentiality or integrity impact per the scoring metric—though the description notes potential data tampering, suggesting the practical impact may involve integrity concerns. The vulnerability was published to NVD on May 26, 2026, and is currently undergoing analysis. NVIDIA has published security guidance through their customer help portal. Organizations using affected NVIDIA Display Driver versions should monitor for driver updates from NVIDIA and apply patches when available. Given the local attack vector and high privilege requirements, exploitation would typically require an attacker to already have compromised an account with elevated privileges on the target system.

Vendor
NVIDIA
Product
GeForce
CVSS
MEDIUM 4.4
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2026-05-26
Original CVE updated
2026-06-11
Advisory published
2026-05-26
Advisory updated
2026-06-11

Who should care

Organizations running NVIDIA graphics drivers on Windows or Linux workstations and servers, particularly multi-user environments or systems where local privilege boundaries must be enforced. Security teams should prioritize this for driver update cycles given the kernel-level impact potential.

Technical summary

The vulnerability exists in the kernel-mode component of NVIDIA Display Driver where improper permission checks on critical resources allow an attacker with high local privileges to manipulate resource permissions. This can lead to system instability (denial of service) and potential data integrity violations. The attack requires local access and elevated privileges, limiting exposure primarily to multi-user systems or scenarios where an attacker has already achieved privilege escalation through other means.

Defensive priority

medium

Recommended defensive actions

  • Monitor NVIDIA security bulletins for affected driver version details and patch release information
  • Apply NVIDIA Display Driver updates when security patches become available
  • Review systems with NVIDIA graphics drivers for unauthorized local accounts with elevated privileges
  • Implement principle of least privilege for local user accounts to reduce attack surface
  • Consider application control policies to restrict unauthorized driver modifications

Evidence notes

Vendor identification relies on reference domain analysis (Custhelp/NVIDIA customer support domain) with low confidence flag for review. The official NVIDIA security bulletin is the authoritative source for affected product versions and patch availability.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2025-33221 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-33221

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2025-33221 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-33221

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.