Just this month, Nvidia posted a security bulletin on its site alerting consumers that GPUs in its GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla product lines were all affected by serious vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities range in severity, but get as dangerous as local code execution and privilege escalation, and can be found in all versions of numerous driver tracks that the company provides for its hardware.
Notably, this includes the R430 line that powers the GeForce GPUs. While Nvidia has since issued new patched versions of all of its GeForce and many of its Quadro drivers, patches for some of its Quadro and Tesla drivers have not been released, and in some cases won’t be ready for two weeks.
The revelation of these substantial security flaws comes at an exceptionally awkward time for the GPU manufacturer, as it has just released its GeForce RTX Super line of graphics cards to capitalize on the post-E3 gaming excitement. Considering that concern for local privilege escalation vulnerabilities is often taken less seriously than more menacing remote code execution vulnerabilities due to the comparatively limited attack vector, gamers may not think to download and install a patch to their freshly purchased RTX Super GPU.
These security holes also coincide with a recent disappointing showing against AMD. After AMD successfully tricked Nvidia into sabotaging its own RTX Super release with a less-than-competitive price point, marketing gleaming new GPUs with high-severity vulnerabilities right out of the gate surely feels like getting salt in its wound.
One saving grace for Nvidia is that some hardware manufacturers may bundle the driver update as part of larger system updates, but users should definitely not count on this.
As things currently stand, a local code execution bug combined with a privilege execution bug can leave unpatched devices open to physical attacks in which a malicious actor gains physical access to a device to give themselves administrator privileges and run arbitrary code. This kind of attack is not out of the question, as many of the devices containing vulnerable Nvidia graphics cards are used by creatives who may or may not have robust security models, or may be using publicly accessible devices like those in libraries or gaming lounges. Regardless, any consumer with affected hardware should download and run the patch installers Nvidia has provided (or will soon provide, for those that are not yet available) as soon as possible.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.