CVE-2023-52981

drm/i915: Fix request ref counting during error capture & debugfs dump

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: March 27, 2025 at 04:43 PM UTC
Updated: October 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Fix request ref counting during error capture & debugfs dump When GuC support was added to error capture, the reference counting around the request object was broken. Fix it up. The context based search manages the spinlocking around the search internally. So it needs to grab the reference count internally as well. The execlist only request based search relies on external locking, so it needs an external reference count but within the spinlock not outside it. The only other caller of the context based search is the code for dumping engine state to debugfs. That code wasn't previously getting an explicit reference at all as it does everything while holding the execlist specific spinlock. So, that needs updaing as well as that spinlock doesn't help when using GuC submission. Rather than trying to conditionally get/put depending on submission model, just change it to always do the get/put. v2: Explicitly document adding an extra blank line in some dense code (Andy Shevchenko). Fix multiple potential null pointer derefs in case of no request found (some spotted by Tvrtko, but there was more!). Also fix a leaked request in case of !started and another in __guc_reset_context now that intel_context_find_active_request is actually reference counting the returned request. v3: Add a _get suffix to intel_context_find_active_request now that it grabs a reference (Daniele). v4: Split the intel_guc_find_hung_context change to a separate patch and rename intel_context_find_active_request_get to intel_context_get_active_request (Tvrtko). v5: s/locking/reference counting/ in commit message (Tvrtko) (cherry picked from commit 3700e353781e27f1bc7222f51f2cc36cbeb9b4ec)

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

5.15 ≤ v < 6.1.11573ba126aef37c8315e5bb68d2dad515efa969946.26.2 rc16.2 rc26.2 rc36.2 rc46.2 rc56.2 rc6
Vendor states this is fixed in 86d8ddc74124c3fdfc139f246ba6da15e45e86e3 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 9467397f417dd7b5d0db91452f0474e79716a527 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.11 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/86d8ddc74124c3fdfc139f246ba6da15e45e86e3
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9467397f417dd7b5d0db91452f0474e79716a527

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-Other

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