CVE-2025-33228
Published: 20 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-33228 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Nvidia Cuda Toolkit. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Windows Command Shell (T1059.003); ranked at the 8.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-33228 is an OS command injection vulnerability in NVIDIA Nsight Systems, specifically within the gfx_hotspot recipe of the process_nsys_rep_cli.py script. The issue arises when the script is invoked manually and supplied with a malicious string, potentially allowing arbitrary command execution. Published on 2026-01-20, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability by tricking a user into manually executing the affected script with a crafted input string. Successful exploitation could result in code execution, privilege escalation, data tampering, denial of service, or information disclosure, depending on the attacker's goals and the system's configuration.
Mitigation guidance is provided in the NVIDIA security bulletin at https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5755, along with details in the NVD entry at https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-33228 and the CVE record at https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-33228. Security practitioners should consult these advisories for patching instructions and workarounds.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-3357
Vulnerability details
NVIDIA Nsight Systems contains a vulnerability in the gfx_hotspot recipe, where an attacker could cause an OS command injection by supplying a malicious string to the process_nsys_rep_cli.py script if the script is invoked manually. A successful exploit of this vulnerability…
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might lead to code execution, escalation of privileges, data tampering, denial of service, and information disclosure.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
OS command injection (CWE-78) in a CLI script directly enables arbitrary OS command execution via T1059 subtechniques; requires user execution of the script with malicious input (T1204.002).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires validation and neutralization of untrusted input strings supplied to process_nsys_rep_cli.py, blocking the OS command injection vector.
Mandates timely application of the vendor patch or workaround published in NVIDIA bulletin 5755 to eliminate the flawed gfx_hotspot recipe.
Limits privileges of the account used to manually invoke the script, reducing the impact of successful command execution and privilege escalation.