On behalf of users of 173.14.xx driver on FreeBSD, I kindly ask NVidia to issue an update for this legacy branch. The rationale for that is that 73.14.39 had added support for X.org xserver ABI 15 (xorg-server 1.15), and thus it works with upcoming xserver version 1.14 as well. We have reports from users ready to update to new X.org, and 173.14.39 works just fine for them.
While older branches such as -71 and -96 are quickly falling behind X.org development and would not work (ir)regardless of recent vulnerability patch, 173.xx still remains viable, being both compatible with new X.org server and essential for users owning not-terribly-old gfx hardware.
Please reconsider abandoning 173.xx for the time being. I would not have asked this if vulnerable code would be in the open-source parts of the driver (we would just backported relevant bits ourselves), but in this case it’s hidden inside proprietary parts, so little can be done without the help from NVidia.
Thank you for your continuous commitment and support towards FreeBSD.