CriticalCVE-2018-19320

    GIGABYTE Multiple Products Unspecified Vulnerability (CVE-2018-19320)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    The GDrv low-level driver in GIGABYTE APP Center v1.05.21 and earlier, AORUS GRAPHICS ENGINE before 1.57, XTREME GAMING ENGINE before 1.26, and OC GURU II v2.08 exposes ring0 memcpy-like functionality that could allow a local attacker to take complete control of the affected system.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. Update Gigabyte Aorus Graphics Engine to version 1.57, Gigabyte App Center to version 19.0422.1, Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming Engine to version 1.26. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Gigabyte Aorus Graphics Engine lt *..1.57
    • Gigabyte App Center lt *..19.0422.1
    • Gigabyte OC Guru II eq 2.08..2.08
    • Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming Engine lt *..1.26
    Fixed in
    • Gigabyte Aorus Graphics Engine 1.57
    • Gigabyte App Center 19.0422.1
    • Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming Engine 1.26

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    4.6 %

    EPSS score

    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 91.6

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    231.15 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    4.6 %
    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    91.6
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 27 October 2022

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This flaw is local-only and needs prior code execution. Its real value to attackers is post-compromise: a legitimately signed driver with kernel memory access lets them disable defences. That is why it is carried in BYOVD-style — even onto machines that never had GIGABYTE software — and why CISA flags known ransomware use. Exploitation likelihood is elevated rather than extreme. Even so, organisations relying on EDR with widespread local admin rights should treat it as high priority — the job is blocking the driver estate-wide, not patching a few gaming utilities. Where the vulnerable driver blocklist and HVCI are enforced and local admin is removed, a medium rating is defensible.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Hunt fleet-wide: Use EDR or software inventory to find gdrv.sys (service usually named gdrv) and installations of GIGABYTE App Center, AORUS Graphics Engine, XTREME Gaming Engine and OC GURU II. Expect hits on gaming-grade hardware, engineering workstations and BYOD-adjacent devices. Do not rely on file path — attackers commonly drop the driver into %TEMP% or C:\Windows\.
      • Upgrade or uninstall: Move AORUS Graphics Engine to 1.57 or later and XTREME Gaming Engine to 1.26 or later. App Center v1.05.21 and earlier is affected; verify the current release. The context gives no fixed version for OC GURU II, so uninstall it — it rarely has a business purpose on corporate endpoints. For all products: patch available from the vendor — check the vendor advisory for the exact version.
      • Remove the driver: Stop and delete the service (sc stop gdrv && sc delete gdrv), remove the .sys file and reboot. Uninstalling the application does not always unload or delete the kernel driver.
      • Treat unexpected hits as an incident: Any gdrv.sys on a host without GIGABYTE software indicates BYOVD (Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver).
        • Network-isolate the host immediately and capture memory and disk.
        • Check whether EDR, AV or backup agents were killed.
        • Rotate local and domain credentials used on that host.
      • Prepare for ransomware: Verify that offline and immutable backups are intact — kernel access is typically used to blind security tooling before encryption.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Driver blocklisting: Enable the Microsoft Vulnerable Driver Blocklist (Windows Security → Device security → Core isolation). Add your own WDAC/App Control deny rule for gdrv.sys by hash and signer, sourcing hashes from LOLDrivers.io or your own finding.
      • Endpoint hardening:
        • Enforce HVCI (Memory Integrity) and Secure Boot.
        • Deploy the Defender ASR rule "Block abuse of exploited vulnerable signed drivers" (56a863a9-875e-4185-98a7-b882c64b5ce5) in block mode.
        • Turn on EDR tamper protection.
      • IAM/least privilege: Loading a driver requires admin rights (SeLoadDriverPrivilege). Strip local admin, deploy LAPS and gate admin sessions through PAM and tiering. This breaks the chain "low-priv foothold → privilege escalation → driver load".
      • Software control: Ban GIGABYTE and other hardware-tuning utilities on managed clients via AppLocker/WDAC or your software-distribution policy.
      • Segmentation: Place hosts that genuinely depend on these tools, such as specialised workstations, in a dedicated VLAN. On that VLAN, block inbound RDP/SMB from client networks and restrict egress to defined services, to contain lateral movement after kernel compromise.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Sysmon EID 6 (driver loaded): Alert when ImageLoaded ends with gdrv.sys or Signature contains "GIGA-BYTE" on non-approved hosts. Sigma shape: logsource: product: windows, category: driver_load | detection: ImageLoaded|endswith: '\gdrv.sys'.
      • Service installation: System EID 7045 or Security EID 4697 with a kernel-mode driver service type and an ImagePath outside C:\Windows\System32\drivers\. KQL: DeviceEvents | where ActionType == "DriverLoad" | where FileName =~ "gdrv.sys".
      • Process ancestry: sc.exe create … type= kernel or NtLoadDriver calls originating from script hosts (powershell.exe, cmd.exe, rundll32.exe) or from unsigned binaries in %TEMP%, %APPDATA% or C:\ProgramData\.
      • Follow-on behaviour: Security services stopping or crashing (System EIDs 7034/7036) shortly after a driver load. Also flag shadow-copy deletion that follows (vssadmin delete shadows, wmic shadowcopy delete).
      • File system: Sysmon EID 11 for *.sys files written by non-installer processes. SPL: index=sysmon EventCode=11 TargetFilename="*.sys" NOT Image IN ("*\\msiexec.exe","*\\TrustedInstaller.exe").

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    The GDrv low-level driver in GIGABYTE APP Center v1.05.21 and earlier, AORUS GRAPHICS ENGINE before 1.57, XTREME GAMING ENGINE before 1.26, and OC GURU II v2.08 exposes ring0 memcpy-like functionality that could allow a local attacker to take complete control of the affected system.

    Source: CISA KEV Catalog, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    gigabyteaorus_graphics_engine
    • < 1.57
    • 1.57
    gigabyteapp_center
    • < 19.0422.1
    • 19.0422.1
    gigabyteoc_guru_ii
    • 2.08
    • —
    gigabytextreme_gaming_engine
    • < 1.26
    • 1.26

    Vendors and products

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

    • seclists.org20181221 [CORE-2018-0007] - GIGABYTE Driver Elevation of Privilege VulnerabilitiesMailing list, x_refsource_FULLDISC
    • secureauth.comlabs/advisories/gigabyte-drivers-elevation-privilege-vulnerabil…x_refsource_MISC
    • securityfocus.com106252Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID
    • gigabyte.comtw/Support/Utility/Graphics-Cardx_refsource_CONFIRM
    • gigabyte.comSupport/Security/1801x_refsource_CONFIRM
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2018-19320government-resource
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