CVE-2023-53388 drm/mediatek: Clean dangling pointer on bind error path
A dangling pointer in the MediaTek DRM driver can cause a kernel panic during suspend if the bind operation fails, leading to denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-53388?
CVE-2023-53388 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 2025. 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:
drm/mediatek: Clean dangling pointer on bind error path
mtk_drm_bind() can fail, in which case drm_dev_put() is called, destroying the drm_device object. However a pointer to it was still being held in the private object, and that pointer would be passed along to DRM in mtk_drm_sys_prepare() if a suspend were triggered at that point, resulting in a panic. Clean the pointer when destroying the object in the error path to prevent this from happening.
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53388?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53388?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2023-53388 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53388 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53388, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53388, GHSA-jj38-96h8-c9q4, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53388.