CVE-2023-53991

EPSS 0.0%
  • Published: 2025-12-24T11:15:52.000

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

drm/msm/dpu: Disallow unallocated resources to be returned

In the event that the topology requests resources that have not been
created by the system (because they are typically not represented in
dpu_mdss_cfg ^1), the resource(s) in global_state (in this case DSC
blocks, until their allocation/assignment is being sanity-checked in
“drm/msm/dpu: Reject topologies for which no DSC blocks are available”)
remain NULL but will still be returned out of
dpu_rm_get_assigned_resources, where the caller expects to get an array
containing num_blks valid pointers (but instead gets these NULLs).

To prevent this from happening, where null-pointer dereferences
typically result in a hard-to-debug platform lockup, num_blks shouldn’t
increase past NULL blocks and will print an error and break instead.
After all, max_blks represents the static size of the maximum number of
blocks whereas the actual amount varies per platform.

^1: which can happen after a git rebase ended up moving additions to
_dpu_cfg to a different struct which has the same patch context.

Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/517636/

Related CVE by CWE

No related CWE found.

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Recently Exploited Similar Vulnerabilities

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How to fix CVE-2023-53991

CVE-2023-53991 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm/dpu: Disallow unallocated resources to be returned In the event that the topology requests resources that have not been created by the system (because they are typically not represented in dpu_mdss_cfg ^1), the resource(s) in global_state (in this case DSC blocks, until their allocation/assignment is […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Vendor Advisory: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/517636/

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Dec 24, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Dec 24, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.