# CVE-2023-53678: drm/i915: Fix system suspend without fbdev being initialized

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel i915 driver causes a system crash during suspend on platforms without display initialization.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 7 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53678, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53678, GHSA-xfj7-4ww9-wpqr, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53678

## What is CVE-2023-53678?

CVE-2023-53678 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 Oct 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/i915: Fix system suspend without fbdev being initialized

If fbdev is not initialized for some reason - in practice on platforms
without display - suspending fbdev should be skipped during system
suspend, fix this up. While at it add an assert that suspending fbdev
only happens with the display present.

This fixes the following:

[   91.227923] PM: suspend entry (s2idle)
[   91.254598] Filesystems sync: 0.025 seconds
[   91.270518] Freezing user space processes
[   91.272266] Freezing user space processes completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds)
[   91.272686] OOM killer disabled.
[   91.272872] Freezing remaining freezable tasks
[   91.274295] Freezing remaining freezable tasks completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds)
[   91.659622] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000001c8
[   91.659981] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
[   91.660252] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
[   91.660511] PGD 0 P4D 0
[   91.660647] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
[   91.660875] CPU: 4 PID: 917 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.2.0-rc7+ #54
[   91.661185] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20221117gitfff6d81270b5-9.fc37 unknown
[   91.661680] RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x19/0x30
[   91.661914] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 53 48 89 fb e8 62 d3 ff ff 31 c0 65 48 8b 14 25 00 15 03 00 <f0> 48 0f b1 13 75 06 5b c3 cc cc cc cc 48 89 df 5b eb b4 0f 1f 40
[   91.662840] RSP: 0018:ffffa1e8011ffc08 EFLAGS: 00010246
[   91.663087] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000000001c8 RCX: 0000000000000000
[   91.663440] RDX: ffff8be455eb0000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 00000000000001c8
[   91.663802] RBP: ffff8be459440000 R08: ffff8be459441f08 R09: ffffffff8e1432c0
[   91.664167] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000001
[   91.664532] R13: 00000000000001c8 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff8be442f4fb20
[   91.664905] FS:  00007f28ffc16740(0000) GS:ffff8be4bb900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[   91.665334] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[   91.665626] CR2: 00000000000001c8 CR3: 0000000114926006 CR4: 0000000000770ee0
[   91.665988] PKRU: 55555554
[   91.666131] Call Trace:
[   91.666265]  <TASK>
[   91.666381]  intel_fbdev_set_suspend+0x97/0x1b0 [i915]
[   91.666738]  i915_drm_suspend+0xb9/0x100 [i915]
[   91.667029]  pci_pm_suspend+0x78/0x170
[   91.667234]  ? __pfx_pci_pm_suspend+0x10/0x10
[   91.667461]  dpm_run_callback+0x47/0x150
[   91.667673]  __device_suspend+0x10a/0x4e0
[   91.667880]  dpm_suspend+0x134/0x270
[   91.668069]  dpm_suspend_start+0x79/0x80
[   91.668272]  suspend_devices_and_enter+0x11b/0x890
[   91.668526]  pm_suspend.cold+0x270/0x2fc
[   91.668737]  state_store+0x46/0x90
[   91.668916]  kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x11b/0x200
[   91.669153]  vfs_write+0x1e1/0x3a0
[   91.669336]  ksys_write+0x53/0xd0
[   91.669510]  do_syscall_64+0x58/0xc0
[   91.669699]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0
[   91.669980]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0
[   91.670278]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x17/0x40
[   91.670524]  ? do_syscall_64+0x67/0xc0
[   91.670717]  ? __irq_exit_rcu+0x3d/0x140
[   91.670931]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
[   91.671202] RIP: 0033:0x7f28ffd14284

v2: CC stable. (Jani)

References: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/8015
(cherry picked from commit 9542d708409a41449e99c9a464deb5e062c4bee2)

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53678?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53678?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53678 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53678 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-2023-53678 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53678 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 Oct 2025. 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-2023-53678 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-2023-53678/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53678/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53678
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53678
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53678

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53678/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.