It's rare that a graphics card driver gets an update that fixes something related to security, but that's just what NVIDIA did on Saturday. The company now has a new version of its GeForce-based drivers available that were pushed out to fix an exploit that could be used for nefarious purposes.
The drivers, which have the version number of 310.90, are now available for download at the company's site. Officially, the release notes state that the new version "adds a security update for the NVIDIA Display Driver service (nvvsvc.exe)." The notes don't mention that the drivers were updated to fix an exploit that was discovered by a UK researcher, which he disclosed on Christmas Day.
The security hole, if left unattended, could allow hackers who have a valid domain account to gain super-user access to any PC that has the old version of the Display Driver service installed. This new update has gone through Microsoft's WHQL certification service, so this is not a beta release designed to quickly fix an issue but an official driver version that everyone with an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card should download.
In addition to fixing the exploit, the new 310.90 version also has a number of performance improvements for many PC games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Assassin's Creed III.
Source: NVIDIA | Image via NVIDIA
Via: Hot Hardware
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