7.8

CVE-2023-52981: drm/i915: Fix request ref counting during error capture & debugfs dump

Modified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52981DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52981
Published 27-03-2025Last modified 15-10-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-52981 is a high (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 7.8, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
7.8/10
010
High · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.24%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 4 · Related 2

Timeline

  1. 27-03-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 15-10-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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)

CVSS metrics

5 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

0.24%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

15%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.24% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

No weakness data has been published for this record.

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu105 products
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 573ba126aef37c8315e5bb68d2dad515efa96994, < 9467397f417dd7b5d0db91452f0474e79716a527 | ≥ 573ba126aef37c8315e5bb68d2dad515efa96994, < 86d8ddc74124c3fdfc139f246ba6da15e45e86e3 | 5.15
  • linux_kernel≥ 5.15, < 6.1.11 | 6.2:rc1 | 6.2:rc2 | 6.2:rc3 | 6.2:rc4 | 6.2:rc5 | 6.2:rc6
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.11-1

3 vendors · 108 products

References

6 links