Nvidia has released a security update for its graphics card drivers. It is strongly recommended to install it to correct certain vulnerabilities.
To deliver high performance in video games, graphics cards need to interact very deeply with the very roots of Microsoft’s Windows system. This access also means that a security breach can quickly pose serious risks.
For several versions of Windows, Microsoft has been working with AMD, Intel and Nvidia to limit these risks by better regulating the interaction between graphics card drivers and Windows. This does not avoid all risks, as shown in the security bulletin published by Nvidia on November 1.
High security vulnerabilities
The October 2023 update notably corrects 4 security vulnerabilities posing a risk considered high (CVE-2023-31016, CVE-2023-31017, CVE-2023-31019, CVE-2023-31027). They can allow an attacker logged in with a simple guest session to gain administrator access to the machine.
The October update is offered as a new version of the GeForce drivers for Windows or GNU/Linux. An update is offered on Windows 7, Windows 8.x, Windows 10 and Windows 11.
In principle, Nvidia no longer offers performance-enhancing updates for graphics cards based on the Kepler architecture, i.e. the GeForce GTX 600 or GTX 700. The firm, however, offers here an update of security for PCs equipped with graphics cards of these generations to ensure that the vulnerabilities are closed.
Two different drivers
To summarize, if you have a PC running a recent version of Windows (Windows 10 or Windows 11) and a Maxwell graphics chip (GeForce GTX 900) up to Ada Lovelace (GeForce RTX 4000), you need to download the Nvidia GeForce driver 546.01.
The Nvidia GeForce Game Ready 546.01 driver
If you have an old version of Windows (Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1) and a Kepler generation graphics card, the GeForce 474.66 drivers should be downloaded and installed on your machine.
The Nvidia GeForce Game Ready 474.66 driver