Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4 i915 error_code null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4. It has been declared as critical. Affected is the function error_code of the component i915. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53678. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4. It has been classified as critical. Affected is the function error_code of the component i915. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Fix system suspend without fbdev being initialized If fbdev is not initialized for some reason - in practice on platforms without display - suspending fbdev should be skipped during system suspend, fix this up. While at it add an assert that suspending fbdev only happens with the display present. This fixes the following: [ 91.227923] PM: suspend entry (s2idle) [ 91.254598] Filesystems sync: 0.025 seconds [ 91.270518] Freezing user space processes [ 91.272266] Freezing user space processes completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds) [ 91.272686] OOM killer disabled. [ 91.272872] Freezing remaining freezable tasks [ 91.274295] Freezing remaining freezable tasks completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds) [ 91.659622] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000001c8 [ 91.659981] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 91.660252] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 91.660511] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 91.660647] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 91.660875] CPU: 4 PID: 917 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.2.0-rc7+ #54 [ 91.661185] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20221117gitfff6d81270b5-9.fc37 unknown [ 91.661680] RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x19/0x30 [ 91.661914] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 53 48 89 fb e8 62 d3 ff ff 31 c0 65 48 8b 14 25 00 15 03 00 <f0> 48 0f b1 13 75 06 5b c3 cc cc cc cc 48 89 df 5b eb b4 0f 1f 40 [ 91.662840] RSP: 0018:ffffa1e8011ffc08 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 91.663087] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000000001c8 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 91.663440] RDX: ffff8be455eb0000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 00000000000001c8 [ 91.663802] RBP: ffff8be459440000 R08: ffff8be459441f08 R09: ffffffff8e1432c0 [ 91.664167] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000001 [ 91.664532] R13: 00000000000001c8 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff8be442f4fb20 [ 91.664905] FS: 00007f28ffc16740(0000) GS:ffff8be4bb900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 91.665334] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 91.665626] CR2: 00000000000001c8 CR3: 0000000114926006 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [ 91.665988] PKRU: 55555554 [ 91.666131] Call Trace: [ 91.666265] <TASK> [ 91.666381] intel_fbdev_set_suspend+0x97/0x1b0 [i915] [ 91.666738] i915_drm_suspend+0xb9/0x100 [i915] [ 91.667029] pci_pm_suspend+0x78/0x170 [ 91.667234] ? __pfx_pci_pm_suspend+0x10/0x10 [ 91.667461] dpm_run_callback+0x47/0x150 [ 91.667673] __device_suspend+0x10a/0x4e0 [ 91.667880] dpm_suspend+0x134/0x270 [ 91.668069] dpm_suspend_start+0x79/0x80 [ 91.668272] suspend_devices_and_enter+0x11b/0x890 [ 91.668526] pm_suspend.cold+0x270/0x2fc [ 91.668737] state_store+0x46/0x90 [ 91.668916] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x11b/0x200 [ 91.669153] vfs_write+0x1e1/0x3a0 [ 91.669336] ksys_write+0x53/0xd0 [ 91.669510] do_syscall_64+0x58/0xc0 [ 91.669699] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0 [ 91.669980] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0 [ 91.670278] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x17/0x40 [ 91.670524] ? do_syscall_64+0x67/0xc0 [ 91.670717] ? __irq_exit_rcu+0x3d/0x140 [ 91.670931] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [ 91.671202] RIP: 0033:0x7f28ffd14284 v2: CC stable. (Jani) References: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/8015 (cherry picked from commit 9542d708409a41449e99c9a464deb5e062c4bee2)

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53678 since 10/07/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.1.18 or 6.2.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 27b5871abd5cc068c549fd23062c82e257fc0b9c/8ed572d5a0f1509e691a75a0e3d3588050371f1e/8038510b1fe443ffbc0e356db5f47cbb8678a594 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-2025-2229). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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