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🛡️ CVE-2023-52738 — kernel

🟡 CVSS 5.3 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
5.3
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

drm/amdgpu/fence: Fix oops due to non-matching drm_sched init/fini

In 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]/

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability low.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated stranger can try it.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: Low — limited, and the attacker does not choose what is affected.

Affected software

CVE-2023-52738 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 5.16.0 up to 6.1.12)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 21 May 2024 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

Other advisories for this package

kernel has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

CVE-2023-52738 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Medium
CVSS Score 5.3
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2024-05-21
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 5.16.0 6.1.12
linux-kernel — —

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