Preface: The NVdebug tool, used for NVIDIA GPU debugging, relies on the NVIDIA Data Center GPU Manager (DCGM) library. Specifically, it utilizes DCGM version 2.2.x or later. DCGM is a suite of tools for managing and monitoring NVIDIA GPUs in data center and cluster environments.
Background: The NV Debug Tool is part of the NVIDIA Nsight Systems and Nsight Graphics development tools. These tools are designed for debugging and profiling GPU-accelerated applications, including those using CUDA and other graphics APIs. It’s useful for debugging both CPU and GPU code, especially for CUDA applications.
Nsight Systems can collect logs for both Nsight Compute and Nsight Graphics. Nsight Systems is a system-wide performance analysis tool, while Nsight Compute focuses on kernel-level profiling and Nsight Graphics specializes in graphics application debugging and profiling. Nsight Systems can gather data that is relevant to both, and the collected data can be analyzed within the respective tools.
Vulnerability details: The NVIDIA NVDebug tool contains a vulnerability that may allow an actor to gain access to restricted components. A successful exploit of this vulnerability may lead to information disclosure.
Ref: CVE-2021-34398: NVIDIA DCGM, all versions prior to 2.2.9, contains a vulnerability in the DIAG module where any user can inject shared libraries into the DCGM server, which is usually running as root, which may lead to privilege escalation, total loss of confidentiality and integrity, and complete denial of service. (Public on May 29, 2025)
Point of view: In attached diagram description, if your system uses NVDebug, it’s very likely that it also includes or interacts with a version of the DCGM library, and therefore could be affected by vulnerabilities in DCGM versions prior to 2.2.9.
Official announcement: Please refer to the supplier announcement –