Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8 Display drm/amd/display sink null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as very critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8. The impacted element is an unknown function of the file drm/amd/display of the component Display. Such manipulation of the argument sink leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-98926. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8 and classified as very critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block of the file drm/amd/display of the component Display. The manipulation of the argument sink 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 confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amd/display: Remove sink usage from DPMS [Why] stream->sink is optional and can be null, so should always be checked before dereference. Additionally, most of its usage in DPMS sequences is for stream->sink->link, which can be replaced with stream->link, as the two should always be the same. [How] * Replace stream->sink->link in DPMS on/off * Add assert to USB4 BW allocation where sink is required * Avoid inconsistencies in resource access, e.g. don't repeat stream->link after it was already saved to a local variable * Pull out effective VPG calculation to helper getter * Formatting fixes

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-98926 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 10/23/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.2.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 0b1eebd359685dd681f6e0df5540a5bb985a27bf/8fa813b7fd1eccbed13e126166cf764f1f11a7d3 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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