CVE-2026-24181: NVIDIA DALI contains a vulnerability in a component where an attacker could cause an improper index validation

Synopsis

Improper index validation in NVIDIA DALI (versions 0.0 through 2.0) allows a local, low-privileged attacker to trigger out-of-bounds memory access by supplying a malicious input that bypasses index checks. The attacker must already have a shell or process on the host and must also get a user to take some action, but no elevated privileges are required beyond a standard low-privilege account. Successful exploitation gives the attacker full code execution, the ability to tamper with data, read sensitive information, and crash the affected service. HarborGuard is tracking this advisory and will make a patched-image rebuild available the moment an upstream fix is published.

HarborGuard Coverage

Exploit Conditions

• Network reachabilityNot required

  The attacker needs an existing shell or process on the host; no network access to the service is required.

• AuthenticationRequired

  Any low-privilege local account is sufficient; no administrative or elevated credentials are needed.

• Victim interactionRequired

  A user on the system must take some action (such as opening a crafted file or triggering a specific operation) before the exploit can proceed.

• Attack complexityDetail

  Attack complexity is low, meaning the exploit is reliable and does not depend on race conditions, specific memory layouts, or other hard-to-control environmental factors.

Blast Radius

• Executes arbitrary code in the context of the process running NVIDIA DALI, giving the attacker control over that process.
• Reads sensitive data accessible to the affected process, including in-memory pipeline data, model inputs, and any credentials or tokens loaded at runtime.
• Modifies in-memory or persisted data processed by DALI pipelines, corrupting dataset transformations or model preprocessing outputs.
• Crashes the affected DALI service or worker process, halting data-loading and preprocessing pipelines that depend on it.