# CVE-2025-37754: drm/i915/huc: Fix fence not released on early probe errors

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the i915 driver allows kernel warnings and potential instability during early probe errors.

- **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:** 1 May 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-37754, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37754, GHSA-mmr7-75gg-rpc3, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37754, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37754

## What is CVE-2025-37754?

CVE-2025-37754 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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/huc: Fix fence not released on early probe errors

HuC delayed loading fence, introduced with commit 27536e03271da
("drm/i915/huc: track delayed HuC load with a fence"), is registered with
object tracker early on driver probe but unregistered only from driver
remove, which is not called on early probe errors.  Since its memory is
allocated under devres, then released anyway, it may happen to be
allocated again to the fence and reused on future driver probes, resulting
in kernel warnings that taint the kernel:

<4> [309.731371] ------------[ cut here ]------------
<3> [309.731373] ODEBUG: init destroyed (active state 0) object: ffff88813d7dd2e0 object type: i915_sw_fence hint: sw_fence_dummy_notify+0x0/0x20 [i915]
<4> [309.731575] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 3161 at lib/debugobjects.c:612 debug_print_object+0x93/0xf0
...
<4> [309.731693] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 3161 Comm: i915_module_loa Tainted: G     U             6.14.0-CI_DRM_16362-gf0fd77956987+ #1
...
<4> [309.731700] RIP: 0010:debug_print_object+0x93/0xf0
...
<4> [309.731728] Call Trace:
<4> [309.731730]  <TASK>
...
<4> [309.731949]  __debug_object_init+0x17b/0x1c0
<4> [309.731957]  debug_object_init+0x34/0x50
<4> [309.732126]  __i915_sw_fence_init+0x34/0x60 [i915]
<4> [309.732256]  intel_huc_init_early+0x4b/0x1d0 [i915]
<4> [309.732468]  intel_uc_init_early+0x61/0x680 [i915]
<4> [309.732667]  intel_gt_common_init_early+0x105/0x130 [i915]
<4> [309.732804]  intel_root_gt_init_early+0x63/0x80 [i915]
<4> [309.732938]  i915_driver_probe+0x1fa/0xeb0 [i915]
<4> [309.733075]  i915_pci_probe+0xe6/0x220 [i915]
<4> [309.733198]  local_pci_probe+0x44/0xb0
<4> [309.733203]  pci_device_probe+0xf4/0x270
<4> [309.733209]  really_probe+0xee/0x3c0
<4> [309.733215]  __driver_probe_device+0x8c/0x180
<4> [309.733219]  driver_probe_device+0x24/0xd0
<4> [309.733223]  __driver_attach+0x10f/0x220
<4> [309.733230]  bus_for_each_dev+0x7d/0xe0
<4> [309.733236]  driver_attach+0x1e/0x30
<4> [309.733239]  bus_add_driver+0x151/0x290
<4> [309.733244]  driver_register+0x5e/0x130
<4> [309.733247]  __pci_register_driver+0x7d/0x90
<4> [309.733251]  i915_pci_register_driver+0x23/0x30 [i915]
<4> [309.733413]  i915_init+0x34/0x120 [i915]
<4> [309.733655]  do_one_initcall+0x62/0x3f0
<4> [309.733667]  do_init_module+0x97/0x2a0
<4> [309.733671]  load_module+0x25ff/0x2890
<4> [309.733688]  init_module_from_file+0x97/0xe0
<4> [309.733701]  idempotent_init_module+0x118/0x330
<4> [309.733711]  __x64_sys_finit_module+0x77/0x100
<4> [309.733715]  x64_sys_call+0x1f37/0x2650
<4> [309.733719]  do_syscall_64+0x91/0x180
<4> [309.733763]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
<4> [309.733792]  </TASK>
...
<4> [309.733806] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

That scenario is most easily reproducible with
igt@i915_module_load@reload-with-fault-injection.

Fix the issue by moving the cleanup step to driver release path.

(cherry picked from commit 795dbde92fe5c6996a02a5b579481de73035e7bf)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37754?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-37754?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-37754 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37754 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-2025-37754 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-37754 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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-2025-37754 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-2025-37754/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37754/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-37754
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37754
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-37754

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37754/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
