CVE-2026-98523 PUBLISHED

drm/client: fix restore of partially initialized client

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 18.10.2026 Updated: 18.10.2026

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

drm/client: fix restore of partially initialized client

I got a null-ptr-deref report when closing a DRM file descriptor:

WARNING: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_atomic.c:2031 at __drm_atomic_helper_set_config+0x18e/0x1b0 [drm]

Call Trace: drm_client_modeset_commit_atomic+0x16b/0x220 [drm] drm_client_modeset_commit_locked+0x56/0x160 [drm] drm_client_modeset_commit+0x21/0x40 [drm] __drm_fb_helper_restore_fbdev_mode_unlocked.part.0+0x7b/0x80 drm_fbdev_client_restore+0xe/0x20 [drm_client_lib] drm_client_dev_restore+0x9f/0xc0 [drm] drm_release+0xc5/0xe0 [drm]

The warning is followed by a NULL pointer dereference:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008

RIP: __drm_fb_helper_restore_fbdev_mode_unlocked.part.0+0x41/0x80 [drm_kms_helper]

Call Trace: drm_fbdev_client_restore+0xe/0x20 [drm_client_lib] drm_client_dev_restore+0x9f/0xc0 [drm] drm_release+0xc5/0xe0 [drm] __fput+0xdc/0x2b0 __x64_sys_close+0x39/0x80 do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x460 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

drm_client_register() adds the DRM client to the device client list before invoking the initial hotplug callback. If the hotplug callback fails, the client remains registered.

For the fbdev client, a failure during drm_fb_helper_initial_config() causes the partially initialized fbdev helper to be cleaned up. drm_fb_helper_fini() releases fb_helper->info and leaves it NULL.

The fbdev client therefore remains registered even though there is no fully initialized framebuffer device.

Later, when userspace closes the DRM file descriptor, drm_release() can invoke the restore callbacks of registered DRM clients:

drm_release() drm_client_dev_restore() drm_fbdev_client_restore() drm_fb_helper_restore_fbdev_mode_unlocked()

drm_fbdev_client_restore() currently restores the fbdev state unconditionally. For a partially initialized fbdev client this can submit an incomplete modeset state and subsequently access fbdev state which has not been initialized, resulting in the warning and NULL pointer dereference above.

drm_fbdev_client_unregister() already uses fb_helper->info to distinguish a fully probed framebuffer device from a partially initialized client.

Use the same condition in drm_fbdev_client_restore() and skip restore if no framebuffer device has been successfully initialized.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 7f5535fcbba2ce7f1908ee7e5c350032a4b1e9d0 to 11edd5b6735d2e1069ddce672b1836713647f7fb (excl.)
  • affected from 5d08c44e47b9d41366714552bdd374ac4b595591 to fcbedba553a9c430079ee225df2dc7ab556a2f83 (excl.)
  • affected from 5d08c44e47b9d41366714552bdd374ac4b595591 to a69c4b678db808c0d89abb8cedeaaac38d1ef182 (excl.)
  • affected from 5d08c44e47b9d41366714552bdd374ac4b595591 to 1fca688e9443003e33cf30453e7a7560367656c9 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.12.19 to 6.12.112 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.13 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.13 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.112 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.55 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.9 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc5 to * (incl.)

References