Linux Kernel up to 6.1.29/6.3.3 new_crtc_state null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.29/6.3.3. Impacted is the function new_crtc_state. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2023-53833. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.29/6.3.3. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is the function new_crtc_state. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Fix NULL ptr deref by checking new_crtc_state intel_atomic_get_new_crtc_state can return NULL, unless crtc state wasn't obtained previously with intel_atomic_get_crtc_state, so we must check it for NULLness here, just as in many other places, where we can't guarantee that intel_atomic_get_crtc_state was called. We are currently getting NULL ptr deref because of that, so this fix was confirmed to help. (cherry picked from commit 1d5b09f8daf859247a1ea65b0d732a24d88980d8)

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-53833 since 12/09/2025. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298567 (RHEL 8 : kernel (RHSA-2026:2490)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.30 or 6.3.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch dbf25cc21beff4fd2e730573845a266504b21bb2/8b3c0d2d1685ba40b0af4ee1f8d8824a73870f88/a41d985902c153c31c616fe183cf2ee331e95ecb 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 databases at Tenable (298567) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2765). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux

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
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1
• 6.3.2
• 6.3.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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