CVE-2026-65114

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-65114 is a missing-authentication vulnerability (CWE-306) in the NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux, where a critical function can be invoked without any authentication check. An attacker positioned on an adjacent network segment can reach the affected function without credentials and, per the NVD description, potentially achieve data tampering, denial of service, and information disclosure. With a CVSS base score of 8.3 and no vendor patch, no public PoC, and no CISA KEV listing, this is an unpatched, network-adjacent exposure that demands compensating controls rather than signature-based remediation.

Technical Analysis

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function. This class of defect occurs when a software component exposes a function, routine, service endpoint, or administrative operation that performs a security-relevant action but fails to enforce any authentication check before executing it. The NVD description confirms the affected product is the NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux, that the flaw permits "missing authentication for a critical function," and that successful exploitation "might lead to data tampering, denial of service, and information disclosure."

The CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H is highly diagnostic of the attack surface:

• AV:A (Adjacent Network) — exploitation is not globally routable over the internet; the attacker must be able to reach the vulnerable interface from an adjacent network position (same Layer 2 segment, management VLAN, or an east-west path into the management plane). This constrains mass exploitation but is a low bar for an attacker already inside a datacenter, cloud VPC, or management network.
• AC:L / PR:N / UI:N — the attack requires no special conditions, no prior credentials, and no user interaction. The absence of PR:N in combination with CWE-306 is the core problem: there is no authentication gate to bypass because one was never implemented on the affected function.
• I:H (Integrity: High) — the highest-impact subscore, directly consistent with "data tampering." The vulnerable function can modify protected data or configuration without authorization.
• A:H (Availability: High) — consistent with "denial of service," indicating the affected function can be driven to a state that degrades or halts a critical service.
• C:L (Confidentiality: Low) — consistent with "information disclosure," but bounded, suggesting the function leaks a limited set of data rather than bulk secret exfiltration.
• S:U (Scope: Unchanged) — impact is contained within the same security authority; the vulnerability does not inherently pivot to a separate trust boundary.

Because the NVD entry and the CNA title provide no further implementation detail — no endpoint path, no function name, no protocol, no port, and no affected version range — the precise trigger mechanism cannot be described without fabrication. What can be stated definitively is the defect class: a critical operation on the Infrastructure Controller is reachable and executable by an unauthenticated adjacent-network actor. The controller's role as infrastructure-management software implies the function likely governs configuration state, node/device orchestration, or telemetry, all of which map cleanly onto the tampering, DoS, and disclosure impacts enumerated.

It should be emphasized that no affected version enumeration was supplied (Affected Versions: []), so operators cannot rely on a version-based scoping exercise and must instead inventory the product itself.

Exploitation Scenarios

No public proof-of-concept exists (POC_STATUS: None), and no exploit code or Nuclei template has been observed. The following attack chain is therefore described at the vulnerability-class level, strictly per the NVD description. No specific endpoints, function names, or parameters are asserted because none were provided.

1. Reconnaissance / target identification. The attacker must first establish an adjacent-network position (AV:A). This typically means compromise or presence on a management VLAN, hypervisor host, container network, datacenter L2 segment, or cloud VPC that shares reachability with the NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux. Discovery is performed by identifying hosts running the Infrastructure Controller and probing for the exposed critical function — for example, by enumerating management-plane services and endpoints that respond without issuing an authentication challenge.

2. Triggering the flaw class. Because the defect is CWE-306 (missing authentication for a critical function), the "trigger" is simply reaching the unauthenticated function and invoking it. No credential theft, no password brute force, no token forgery, and no authentication bypass trickery is required — the affected operation does not check for authentication at all (PR:N, AC:L, UI:N). The attacker crafts a request or command to the exposed function in whatever protocol the component uses. The specific verb, path, and payload format are not documented in available intelligence and are not invented here.

3. Payload / execution method. At the vulnerability-class level, exploitation consists of invoking the unauthenticated critical function with attacker-chosen input. Depending on the function's purpose, this may mean supplying modified configuration values (feeding the integrity impact), issuing a request that drives the service into a resource-exhausting or crashing state (feeding the availability impact), or querying the function for data it returns without authorization (feeding the confidentiality impact). No buffer-overflow, injection, or memory-corruption primitive is described by the NVD, so the mechanism should be treated as authorization-related rather than memory-safety-related until further data emerges.

4. Post-exploitation impact. Successful invocation produces the triad stated in the advisory: data tampering (I:H — unauthorized modification of controller state or managed configuration), denial of service (A:H — disruption or shutdown of the controller's critical function), and information disclosure (C:L — limited leakage of data returned by the function). Because Scope is Unchanged (S:U), the blast radius is bounded to the controller's own security authority, but the controller is infrastructure-management software, so tampering with it can indirectly degrade the systems it manages.

Operators should treat any unauthenticated, successful interaction with a critical controller function from a non-management source as suspect. Absent a public exploit, detection must lean on behavioral and access-plane monitoring rather than known-bad signatures.

Impact Assessment

The CVSS base score of 8.3 (High) reflects a serious but network-adjacent privilege-free exposure. The subscores frame the operational risk precisely:

• Integrity: High is the dominant concern. Data tampering against an infrastructure controller can mean unauthorized modification of configuration, orchestration state, or device parameters — changes that may propagate to downstream systems the controller manages. Integrity compromise of a management plane is often more damaging than a single-host compromise because of its reach.
• Availability: High means the same unauthenticated path can be used to disrupt a critical function, yielding denial of service. For an infrastructure controller, loss of availability can cascade into loss of visibility or control over a fleet of managed nodes.
• Confidentiality: Low bounds the disclosure impact, suggesting leakage of a constrained data set rather than wholesale secret export.
• AV:A / PR:N / UI:N / AC:L means the barrier is position, not skill: any actor already inside the adjacent network — a malicious insider, a compromised workload in the same VPC, or an attacker who has completed an initial foothold — can exploit it trivially and unattended.

Blast radius. The affected systems are NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux deployments. Because no version range was published, the population of vulnerable instances cannot be scoped by version and must be inventories by product presence. The practical blast radius is the management-plane trust domain: everything the controller is authorized to configure or signal.

Threat context. EPSS has not scored this CVE, no CISA KEV listing exists, and there is no public PoC, exploit code, or Nuclei template. This lowers the likelihood of opportunistic mass exploitation in the near term, but it does not reduce severity for targeted actors who already operate inside management networks — a position RaaS affiliates, insider threats, and post-foothold attackers routinely occupy. Absence of KEV/EPSS data is a function of scoring latency and disclosure recency, not evidence of low risk.

Detection Guidance

The rules below target the vulnerability class (unauthenticated access to a critical management function) and the impact triad (tampering, DoS, disclosure). They are behavioral and access-plane oriented because no exploit artifacts, endpoints, or hashes are available. Tune product/process strings and network ranges to your environment.

Sigma Rule

title: Unauthenticated Access to NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller Critical Function
id: 3f9c1a72-5b6e-4d1a-9c2e-65114aa00001
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated or anomalous access attempts against the NVIDIA
  Infrastructure Controller for Linux that may indicate exploitation of CVE-2026-65114
  (CWE-306 missing authentication for a critical function).
references:
  - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65114
author: valtersit.com
date: 2026/01/01
tags:
  - attack.t1190
  - attack.initial_access
  - cve.2026.65114
logsource:
  category: application
  product: nvidia_infrastructure_controller
detection:
  selection_noauth:
    EventType: 'request'
    AuthResult:
      - 'none'
      - 'missing'
      - 'not_required'
      - 'anonymous'
  selection_sensitive:
    Action|contains:
      - 'config'
      - 'update'
      - 'set'
      - 'delete'
      - 'modify'
      - 'restart'
      - 'shutdown'
  condition: selection_noauth and selection_sensitive
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate health checks or monitoring probes against documented read-only endpoints
level: high

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2026_65114_NVIDIA_InfraController_Unauth_Function
{
    meta:
        author = "valtersit.com"
        description = "Detects indicators of missing-authentication exploitation against NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux (CVE-2026-65114, CWE-306)"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65114"
        date = "2026-01-01"
        severity = "high"

    strings:
        $prod1 = "Infrastructure Controller" ascii nocase
        $prod2 = "nvidia" ascii nocase
        $noauth1 = "authentication required" ascii nocase
        $noauth2 = "unauthorized" ascii nocase
        $func1 = "critical function" ascii nocase
        $func2 = "no authentication" ascii nocase
        $func3 = "missing authentication" ascii nocase

    condition:
        uint16(0) != 0x5A4D and
        filesize < 10MB and
        $prod2 and
        (
            any of ($func*) or
            (any of ($noauth*) and $prod1)
        )
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $HOME_NET any (msg:"CVE-2026-65114 Possible Unauthenticated Access to NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller Critical Function"; flow:to_server,established; content:"Infrastructure Controller"; http_header; nocase; content:"nvidia"; http_header; nocase; pcre:"/(?i)(config|update|set|delete|modify|restart|shutdown)/U"; threshold:type both, track by_src, count 5, seconds 60; classtype:attempted-admin; reference:cve,2026-65114; reference:url,nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65114; sid:90065114; rev:1;)

Elastic Detection

sequence by source.ip with maxspan=60s
  [ network where
      network.direction == "inbound" and
      (http.request.headers contains "Infrastructure" or
       http.request.headers contains "nvidia" or
       tls.server.x509.subject.common_name contains "nvidia") and
      not user.name : * ]
  [ network where
      (http.request.method in ("POST", "PUT", "PATCH", "DELETE") or
       url.path contains "config" or
       url.path contains "update" or
       url.path contains "restart") and
      destination.port in (443, 80, 8080, 8443) ]

Splunk SPL Query

index=network_or_app (sourcetype=nvidia:controller OR sourcetype=proxy OR sourcetype=firewall)
| eval suspect=if(match(lower(_raw),"(?i)(infrastructure controller|nvidia)") AND match(lower(_raw),"(?i)(config|update|set|delete|modify|restart|shutdown)"),1,0)
| where suspect=1
| eval is_noauth=if(match(lower(_raw),"(?i)(no auth|missing auth|unauthor|anonymous|not_required)"),1,0)
| stats count values(src) as sources values(dest) as destinations by is_noauth, src_ip
| where count > 3
| sort - count

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="nvidia,infrastructure_controller,cve-2026-65114,">
  <rule id="100651" level="12">
    <decoded_as>json</decoded_as>
    <field name="product">nvidia_infrastructure_controller</field>
    <regex>\"auth(result)?\"\s*:\s*\"(none|missing|not_required|anonymous)\"</regex>
    <description>CVE-2026-65114: Possible missing-authentication access to NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller critical function</description>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1190</id>
    </mitre>
    <group>cve_2026_65114,initial_access,</group>
  </rule>

  <rule id="100652" level="10">
    <if_sid>100651</if_sid>
    <regex>\"(action|operation)\"\s*:\s*\"(config|update|set|delete|modify|restart|shutdown)\"</regex>
    <description>CVE-2026-65114: Unauthenticated modification/DoS action against Infrastructure Controller</description>
    <group>cve_2026_65114,impact,</group>
  </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch confidence: 0/4 (UNPATCHED — no patch evidence from any tracked source). No vendor fix, workaround, or affected-version list has been published. The following guidance is compensating-control oriented and must be validated against the NVIDIA advisory once it becomes available.

1. Immediate mitigations (unpatched window).

   • Restrict network reachability. Because AV:A governs exploitability, enforce strict network segmentation so that only authorized management hosts can reach the NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller. Use firewall/ACL rules and microsegmentation to deny the management plane from general workload, user, or guest networks. This directly neutralizes the adjacent-network attack path.
   • Place the controller behind authenticated reverse proxies or management jump hosts that require authentication before any traffic reaches the controller, effectively supplying the authentication layer the function lacks.
   • Monitor the management plane aggressively using the detection content above, and alert on any request to a critical function that arrives without an authenticated session.
   • Least privilege and network telemetry. Keep the controller on a dedicated management VLAN, disable unused management interfaces, and enable verbose access logging to capture unauthenticated invocation attempts.

2. Patch / upgrade steps.

   • No fixed version currently exists. Track the NVIDIA product security page and NVIDIA security bulletins for CVE-2026-65114.
   • When a patched release is published: inventory all NVIDIA Infrastructure Controller for Linux instances, apply the fix to the highest-exposure (adjacent-reachable) systems first, and verify the affected function now enforces authentication.
   • Do not assume a version cutoff — none has been published — so treat all deployed instances as potentially affected until NVIDIA clarifies.

3. Long-term hardening.

   • Treat management planes as Tier-0 assets: enforce strong authentication at every ingress path, network-isolate controllers, and apply just-in-time access.
   • Adopt a standing requirement that all controller functions perform server-side authorization checks (address the CWE-306 root cause class across vendor and internal software).
   • Maintain an SBOM and asset inventory for infrastructure-management software so future advisories can be scoped instantly despite missing version data.
   • Integrate CVE feeds and vendor advisories into change management so unreleased-patch CVEs are tracked to closure.

References

• NVD — CVE-2026-65114: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65114
• NVIDIA Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) advisories: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/security/
• CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/306.html
• FIRST EPSS (CVE-2026-65114 not yet scored): https://www.first.org/epss/
• CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (CVE-2026-65114 not listed): https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

No threat actor campaigns or exploit-in-the-wild evidence have been observed or attributed for CVE-2026-65114. No public proof-of-concept, exploit code, or Nuclei template exists at the time of writing. All detection and exploitation analysis above is derived solely from the provided NVD description, CVSS vector, and CWE classification; no specific endpoints, function names, or parameters have been fabricated.