Linux Kernel up to 5.19.16/6.0.2 GPU drm_atomic_helper_shutdown null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.19.16/6.0.2. It has been classified as critical. The affected element is the function drm_atomic_helper_shutdown of the component GPU Component. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2022-50260. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.19.16/6.0.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function drm_atomic_helper_shutdown of the component GPU Component. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm: Make .remove and .shutdown HW shutdown consistent Drivers' .remove and .shutdown callbacks are executed on different code paths. The former is called when a device is removed from the bus, while the latter is called at system shutdown time to quiesce the device. This means that some overlap exists between the two, because both have to take care of properly shutting down the hardware. But currently the logic used in these two callbacks isn't consistent in msm drivers, which could lead to kernel panic. For example, on .remove the component is deleted and its .unbind callback leads to the hardware being shutdown but only if the DRM device has been marked as registered. That check doesn't exist in the .shutdown logic and this can lead to the driver calling drm_atomic_helper_shutdown() for a DRM device that hasn't been properly initialized. A situation like this can happen if drivers for expected sub-devices fail to probe, since the .bind callback will never be executed. If that is the case, drm_atomic_helper_shutdown() will attempt to take mutexes that are only initialized if drm_mode_config_init() is called during a device bind. This bug was attempted to be fixed in commit 623f279c7781 ("drm/msm: fix shutdown hook in case GPU components failed to bind"), but unfortunately it still happens in some cases as the one mentioned above, i.e: systemd-shutdown[1]: Powering off. kvm: exiting hardware virtualization platform wifi-firmware.0: Removing from iommu group 12 platform video-firmware.0: Removing from iommu group 10 ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 1 at drivers/gpu/drm/drm_modeset_lock.c:317 drm_modeset_lock_all_ctx+0x3c4/0x3d0 ... Hardware name: Google CoachZ (rev3+) (DT) pstate: a0400009 (NzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : drm_modeset_lock_all_ctx+0x3c4/0x3d0 lr : drm_modeset_lock_all_ctx+0x48/0x3d0 sp : ffff80000805bb80 x29: ffff80000805bb80 x28: ffff327c00128000 x27: 0000000000000000 x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 0000000000000001 x24: ffffc95d820ec030 x23: ffff327c00bbd090 x22: ffffc95d8215eca0 x21: ffff327c039c5800 x20: ffff327c039c5988 x19: ffff80000805bbe8 x18: 0000000000000034 x17: 000000040044ffff x16: ffffc95d80cac920 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000315 x13: 0000000000000315 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : ffff80000805bc28 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : ffff327c00128000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff327c039c59b0 Call trace: drm_modeset_lock_all_ctx+0x3c4/0x3d0 drm_atomic_helper_shutdown+0x70/0x134 msm_drv_shutdown+0x30/0x40 platform_shutdown+0x28/0x40 device_shutdown+0x148/0x350 kernel_power_off+0x38/0x80 __do_sys_reboot+0x288/0x2c0 __arm64_sys_reboot+0x28/0x34 invoke_syscall+0x48/0x114 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x44/0xec do_el0_svc+0x2c/0xc0 el0_svc+0x2c/0x84 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x11c/0x150 el0t_64_sync+0x18c/0x190 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000018 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000004 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004 CM = 0, WnR = 0 user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=000000010eab1000 [0000000000000018] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=0000000000000000 Internal error: Oops: 96000004 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ... Hardware name: Google CoachZ (rev3+) (DT) pstate: a0400009 (NzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : ww_mutex_lock+0x28/0x32c lr : drm_modeset_lock_all_ctx+0x1b0/0x3d0 sp : ffff80000805bb50 x29: ffff80000805bb50 x28: ffff327c00128000 x27: 0000000000000000 x26: 00000 ---truncated---

The weakness was presented by shutdown. It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2022-50260 since 09/15/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 5.19.17 or 6.0.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 26f9a766f87b33c50ed400a9500cc1dc9aced953/0e6649a2e31ac157c711d583ec8f5ec59da5de0e/0a58d2ae572adaec8d046f8d35b40c2c32ac7468 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2053). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• F5 F5OS

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.19.0
• 5.19.1
• 5.19.2
• 5.19.3
• 5.19.4
• 5.19.5
• 5.19.6
• 5.19.7
• 5.19.8
• 5.19.9
• 5.19.10
• 5.19.11
• 5.19.12
• 5.19.13
• 5.19.14
• 5.19.15
• 5.19.16
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion