CVE-2023-53425 media: platform: mediatek: vpu: fix NULL ptr dereference

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A NULL pointer dereference in the MediaTek VPU driver can cause a kernel crash, 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-2023-53425?

CVE-2023-53425 is a medium-severity 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:

media: platform: mediatek: vpu: fix NULL ptr dereference

If pdev is NULL, then it is still dereferenced.

This fixes this smatch warning:

drivers/media/platform/mediatek/vpu/mtk_vpu.c:570 vpu_load_firmware() warn: address of NULL pointer 'pdev'

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53425?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53425?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53425 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53425 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53425, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53425, GHSA-mgh8-mjvw-m7j5, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53425.

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