CVE-2023-54091 drm/client: Fix memory leak in drm_client_target_cloned
A memory leak in the Linux kernel DRM client allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-54091?
CVE-2023-54091 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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/client: Fix memory leak in drm_client_target_cloned
dmt_mode is allocated and never freed in this function. It was found with the ast driver, but most drivers using generic fbdev setup are probably affected.
This fixes the following kmemleak report: backtrace: [<00000000b391296d>] drm_mode_duplicate+0x45/0x220 [drm] [<00000000e45bb5b3>] drm_client_target_cloned.constprop.0+0x27b/0x480 [drm] [<00000000ed2d3a37>] drm_client_modeset_probe+0x6bd/0xf50 [drm] [<0000000010e5cc9d>] __drm_fb_helper_initial_config_and_unlock+0xb4/0x2c0 [drm_kms_helper] [<00000000909f82ca>] drm_fbdev_client_hotplug+0x2bc/0x4d0 [drm_kms_helper] [<00000000063a69aa>] drm_client_register+0x169/0x240 [drm] [<00000000a8c61525>] ast_pci_probe+0x142/0x190 [ast] [<00000000987f19bb>] local_pci_probe+0xdc/0x180 [<000000004fca231b>] work_for_cpu_fn+0x4e/0xa0 [<0000000000b85301>] process_one_work+0x8b7/0x1540 [<000000003375b17c>] worker_thread+0x70a/0xed0 [<00000000b0d43cd9>] kthread+0x29f/0x340 [<000000008d770833>] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 unreferenced object 0xff11000333089a00 (size 128):
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54091?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54091?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2023-54091 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54091 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54091, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54091, GHSA-h228-354g-ppq4, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54091.