back to article Nvidia fixes hole that turns PCs into remote-control toys for hackers

Nvidia has plugged a critical flaw in its graphics card software that allowed hackers to gain "super-user" access to vulnerable PCs over a network. The Nvidia GeForce display driver update, version 310.90, also features a number of other bug fixes and performance upgrades. "The vulnerability allows a remote attacker with a …

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  1. Reality Dysfunction
    Thumb Down

    Blue screens of Fail.

    Thats great but 310.90 also kills my PC, Poor little Geforce 8300GS.

    1. AJB

      Re: Blue screens of Fail.

      I think this driver release dropped support for your old card - that's why it's faster for everyone else.... DX10 supporting cards are cheap on eBay, but I can understand why you might be annoyed at this state of affairs!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Blue screens of Fail.

        I've just found out that 310.90 isn't compatible with GeForce 6 series and Geforce 7 series cards. In which case, as this is a security vulnerability, I think Nvidia should release an update for the 306.97 driver, so that people who can't install the 310.90 driver are not vulnerable to this security flaw in their software.

  2. mark?
    FAIL

    "The vulnerability allows a remote attacker with a valid domain account" - aka what the rest of us call "a local user" (which makes this flaw a lot less serious)

    1. Major N

      It would be, except the amount of people who use blank passwords and easily guessable usernames means that being able to guess your way in would be trivial in a lot of cases.... especially since these people are the type not to have adequate firewalling in place.

      1. ElReg!comments!Pierre
        Joke

        Ha!

        So it's only a threat for US.mil then?

  3. ElNumbre
    WTF?

    Confused

    Don't quite get why video card drivers need to have access to any networking capability what-so ever.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Confused

      "Don't quite get why video card drivers need to have access to any networking capability what-so ever." So they can automatically look for updates. A lot of games issues are caused by out of date drivers, and most users are too clueless or too scared to download and install updates manually.

  4. Fibbles

    I'm guessing this is the Windows driver? It'd be nice if the article actually listed which platforms were affected rather than leaving me to guess based on an exe mentioned in passing in the last paragraph.

  5. MgrBloodBath
    Mushroom

    WFT?

    I have been using this driver on Linux since it was released on Fri Nov 16, 2012. Slow news day Register?

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