Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-52738
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amdgpu/fence: Fix oops due to non-matching drm_sched init/fini Currently amdgpu calls drm_sched_fini() from the fence driver sw fini routine - such function is expected to be called only after the respective init function - drm_sched_init() - was executed successfully. Happens that we faced a driver probe failure in the Steam Deck recently, and the function drm_sched_fini() was called even without its counter-part had been previously called, causing the following oops: amdgpu: probe of 0000:04:00.0 failed with error -110 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000090 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 0 PID: 609 Comm: systemd-udevd Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-gpiccoli #338 Hardware name: Valve Jupiter/Jupiter, BIOS F7A0113 11/04/2022 RIP: 0010:drm_sched_fini+0x84/0xa0 [gpu_sched] [...] Call Trace: <TASK> amdgpu_fence_driver_sw_fini+0xc8/0xd0 [amdgpu] amdgpu_device_fini_sw+0x2b/0x3b0 [amdgpu] amdgpu_driver_release_kms+0x16/0x30 [amdgpu] devm_drm_dev_init_release+0x49/0x70 [...] To prevent that, check if the drm_sched was properly initialized for a given ring before calling its fini counter-part. Notice ideally we'd use sched.ready for that; such field is set as the latest thing on drm_sched_init(). But amdgpu seems to "override" the meaning of such field - in the above oops for example, it was a GFX ring causing the crash, and the sched.ready field was set to true in the ring init routine, regardless of the state of the DRM scheduler. Hence, we ended-up using sched.ops as per Christian's suggestion [0], and also removed the no_scheduler check [1]. [0] https://lore.kernel.org/amd-gfx/[email protected]/ [1] https://lore.kernel.org/amd-gfx/[email protected]/
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisThe code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.
General guidance for the null pointer dereference class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 5.14.10, < 5.15.94>= 5.16, <= 6.1.12= 6.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.15.94
5.15.94+ / 6.1.13+ / 6.3+ (depending on branch)
- Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
- For kernels 5.14.10 to 5.15.93: Upgrade to kernel version 5.15.94 or later
- For kernels 5.16 to 6.1.12: Upgrade to kernel version 6.1.13 or later
- For kernel 6.2: Upgrade to kernel version 6.3 or later
- After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
- Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches a patched release
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52738 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52738 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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