NVIDIA Investigates Brev Security Incident That May Have Exposed Customer SSH Keys

Nvidia is investigating a security incident affecting its Brev cloud development platform after identifying unauthorized activity over a 16-day period, from October 4 through October 20. The company notified potentially affected customers that information stored on the platform may have been exposed to unauthorized parties.

The information may have included SSH keys generated by Brev for accessing customer virtual machines. NVIDIA said it has replaced the affected keys and updated customer instances with new ones. According to the company, its investigation has not found evidence of improper use of the keys.

NVIDIA has not explained how the attackers obtained access or disclosed whether they attempted to use the exposed information. It also has not said whether customer data or workloads were accessed.

SSH keys can be used by developers and system administrators to connect to remote machines, transfer files and run commands. Their potential impact depends on the permissions assigned to the key and on other security controls protecting the virtual machine.

The incident follows a series of security problems affecting platforms used for AI development and cloud infrastructure. Cybersecurity firm Wiz reported at least nine incidents involving AI developer platforms during October, including cases in which attackers sought stored environment variables containing credentials for AI services. In two incidents involving Amazon Bedrock credentials, Wiz said attackers generated approximately 800,000 API calls over 30 hours with one key and about 1.7 million calls over 13 hours with another, producing combined usage of around $100,000 at list prices.

Bradford Regeski, a threat intelligence analyst at RH-ISAC, recommended that customers involved in SSH-related incidents isolate hosts that used compromised software during the exposure period, remove unauthorized keys and persistence mechanisms, and rotate credentials and active sessions. NVIDIA has not reported evidence that the Brev keys were used improperly.

Sources: Tom's Hardware.