# CVE-2023-52455: iommu: Don't reserve 0-length IOVA region

> A Linux kernel IOMMU bug causes display driver failures and potential denial of service when firmware provides zero-length IOVA regions.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 23 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52455, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52455, GHSA-vqv4-92gw-6c3g, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52455

## What is CVE-2023-52455?

CVE-2023-52455 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

iommu: Don't reserve 0-length IOVA region

When the bootloader/firmware doesn't setup the framebuffers, their
address and size are 0 in "iommu-addresses" property. If IOVA region is
reserved with 0 length, then it ends up corrupting the IOVA rbtree with
an entry which has pfn_hi < pfn_lo.
If we intend to use display driver in kernel without framebuffer then
it's causing the display IOMMU mappings to fail as entire valid IOVA
space is reserved when address and length are passed as 0.
An ideal solution would be firmware removing the "iommu-addresses"
property and corresponding "memory-region" if display is not present.
But the kernel should be able to handle this by checking for size of
IOVA region and skipping the IOVA reservation if size is 0. Also, add
a warning if firmware is requesting 0-length IOVA region reservation.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52455?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52455?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52455 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52455 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52455 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52455 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52455 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52455/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52455/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52455
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52455
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52455

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52455/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.