NVIDIA DGX OS: Critical SSH Key Vulnerability Exposes Systems

The National Vulnerability Database has disclosed CVE-2026-24218, a high-severity vulnerability affecting NVIDIA DGX OS. The issue stems from the factory provisioning process, where cloning a base image leads to identical SSH host keys being deployed across multiple systems. This severe misconfiguration, categorized as CWE-321 (Improperly Implemented Cryptographic Algorithm), undermines the fundamental security of SSH.

This shared cryptographic identifier allows for host impersonation and man-in-the-middle attacks. An attacker leveraging this vulnerability could achieve significant impact, including code execution, data tampering, escalation of privileges, information disclosure, and denial of service. The CVSS score of 8.1 (High) reflects the critical nature, with a vector indicating network exploitability and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

For organizations running NVIDIA DGX OS, this isn’t a hypothetical threat. It means that every system provisioned from that same base image is cryptographically indistinguishable from the attacker’s perspective, making network-level attacks significantly easier to execute. This vulnerability essentially provides a backdoor for attackers to seamlessly blend in and control affected DGX systems.