CriticalCVE-2018-19322

    GIGABYTE Multiple Products Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2018-19322)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    The GPCIDrv and GDrv low-level drivers 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 expose functionality to read/write data from/to IO ports. This could be leveraged in a number of ways to ultimately run code with elevated privileges.

    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 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 lte *..1.05.21
    • 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 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

    1.8 %

    EPSS score

    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 78.7

    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
    213.46 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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    1.8 %
    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
    78.7
    High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
    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, but it is on KEV because the legitimately signed GIGABYTE driver works as a BYOVD tool. Ransomware operators drop it after initial access to gain kernel code execution and kill security tooling, and CISA explicitly flags its use in ransomware campaigns. General exploitation likelihood is moderate, but successful exploitation means full loss of confidentiality, integrity and availability. Any Windows fleet is exposed whether or not GIGABYTE software is installed, so enforcing the driver blocklist should be a high priority. The software update only matters for the few genuine installations.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Hunt for the drivers: Sweep all Windows endpoints and servers for gdrv.sys and GPCIDrv.sys/GPCIDrv64.sys using the filesystem, driverquery /v, your EDR driver inventory and services under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services. Treat any hit on a server without GIGABYTE hardware as an indicator of compromise.
      • Update or remove: Upgrade AORUS GRAPHICS ENGINE to 1.57 or later and XTREME GAMING ENGINE to 1.26 or later. The context lists no fixed release for APP Center (1.05.21 and earlier) or OC GURU II (v2.08), so check the vendor advisory for the current version. Otherwise uninstall them, since tuning utilities rarely have a business justification.
      • Enforce the Microsoft Vulnerable Driver Blocklist: Patching the software alone does not close the gap, because attackers bring the signed vulnerable driver themselves (BYOVD). Enable the blocklist via Windows Security ("Core isolation" → "Microsoft Vulnerable Driver Blocklist") or through Intune/GPO, and verify that gdrv.sys is covered.
      • Isolate suspicious hosts: Network-contain any endpoint where the driver loaded unexpectedly. A driver load shortly before the AV/EDR agent goes silent is a classic precursor to ransomware encryption.
      • Review local admin accounts: Loading a kernel driver requires admin rights. Rotate local admin credentials on affected hosts and review logons from the last 72 h.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Endpoint hardening: Enable HVCI (Memory Integrity) and deploy a WDAC policy that includes Microsoft's recommended driver block rules. Add the LOLDrivers hashes for gdrv.sys/GPCIDrv as deny entries in your EDR policy.
      • Application control: Block installation of GIGABYTE APP Center, AORUS GRAPHICS ENGINE, XTREME GAMING ENGINE and OC GURU II via AppLocker/WDAC or your software distribution tooling. Gaming and overclocking utilities do not belong in a corporate baseline.
      • IAM/least privilege: Remove standing local admin rights and use LAPS/Windows LAPS. Without admin rights an attacker cannot create the service or load the driver. Once the driver is loaded, the flaw itself needs only low local privileges.
      • EDR self-protection: Enable tamper protection (e.g. Defender Tamper Protection) and run the agent as PPL. This does not fully stop kernel-level process termination, but it raises the likelihood of detection.
      • Network segmentation: Limit the lateral movement used to stage the driver. Block client-to-client SMB (445/tcp) and remote service management, and allow admin access only from PAW/jump-host segments.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Sysmon EID 6 (Driver loaded): ImageLoaded|endswith: ['\gdrv.sys','\GPCIDrv.sys','\GPCIDrv64.sys'], or match on LOLDrivers hashes. Defender KQL: DeviceEvents | where ActionType == "DriverLoad" and FileName in~ ("gdrv.sys","GPCIDrv.sys","GPCIDrv64.sys").
      • Service creation: System log EID 7045 or Security EID 4697 with a kernel-mode driver service type and an ImagePath outside C:\Windows\System32\drivers\, such as %TEMP%, C:\Users\ or C:\ProgramData\.
      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / EDR): sc.exe create … type= kernel or sc.exe start spawned from cmd.exe, powershell.exe or an unsigned binary. SPL: index=sysmon EventCode=1 Image="*\\sc.exe" CommandLine="*type=*kernel*".
      • Code Integrity log: Watch Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity/Operational for blocked driver loads (e.g. EID 3077/3023). A block event for gdrv.sys is a strong sign of a BYOVD attempt, even when the block succeeded.
      • Correlation: Escalate as a top-priority ransomware incident when one of the driver-load patterns above is followed within minutes by stopped AV/EDR services (EID 7036/7040), shadow copy deletion (vssadmin delete shadows) or mass file renames.

    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 GPCIDrv and GDrv low-level drivers 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 expose functionality to read/write data from/to IO ports. This could be leveraged in a number of ways to ultimately run code with elevated privileges.

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

    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
    • ≤ 1.05.21
    • —
    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-2018-19322government-resource
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