# CVE-2023-53851: drm/msm/dp: Drop aux devices together with DP controller

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's DisplayPort driver allows attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially execute code via EDID reading.

- **Severity:** High 8.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 3 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53851, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53851, GHSA-wxfw-x294-cg88, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2023-53851, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53851

## What is CVE-2023-53851?

CVE-2023-53851 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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/msm/dp: Drop aux devices together with DP controller

Using devres to depopulate the aux bus made sure that upon a probe
deferral the EDP panel device would be destroyed and recreated upon next
attempt.

But the struct device which the devres is tied to is the DPUs
(drm_dev->dev), which may be happen after the DP controller is torn
down.

Indications of this can be seen in the commonly seen EDID-hexdump full
of zeros in the log, or the occasional/rare KASAN fault where the
panel's attempt to read the EDID information causes a use after free on
DP resources.

It's tempting to move the devres to the DP controller's struct device,
but the resources used by the device(s) on the aux bus are explicitly
torn down in the error path. The KASAN-reported use-after-free also
remains, as the DP aux "module" explicitly frees its devres-allocated
memory in this code path.

As such, explicitly depopulate the aux bus in the error path, and in the
component unbind path, to avoid these issues.

Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/542163/

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53851?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53851?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53851 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53851 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53851 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53851 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2023-53851 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53851/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53851/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53851
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53851
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53851

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53851/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.