CVE-2023-54174 vfio: Fix NULL pointer dereference caused by uninitialized group->iommufd
A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash via a NULL pointer dereference in the VFIO driver, causing a 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-2023-54174?
CVE-2023-54174 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:
vfio: Fix NULL pointer dereference caused by uninitialized group->iommufd
group->iommufd is not initialized for the iommufd_ctx_put()
[20018.331541] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [20018.377508] RIP: 0010:iommufd_ctx_put+0x5/0x10 [iommufd] ... [20018.476483] Call Trace: [20018.479214] <TASK> [20018.481555] vfio_group_fops_unl_ioctl+0x506/0x690 [vfio] [20018.487586] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x6a/0xb0 [20018.491773] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0xc5/0xe0 [20018.496347] do_syscall_64+0x67/0x90 [20018.500340] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0xb5
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54174?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54174?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54174 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54174 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54174, GHSA-p5cq-xjmm-63wj, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54174.