# CVE-2025-68802: drm/xe: Limit num_syncs to prevent oversized allocations

> A local attacker can trigger excessive memory allocations in the Linux kernel's Xe GPU driver via ioctls, causing system instability or denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 13 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68802, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68802, GHSA-8fv4-2ccq-j7r8, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68802, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68802, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68802

## What is CVE-2025-68802?

CVE-2025-68802 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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/xe: Limit num_syncs to prevent oversized allocations

The exec and vm_bind ioctl allow userspace to specify an arbitrary
num_syncs value. Without bounds checking, a very large num_syncs
can force an excessively large allocation, leading to kernel warnings
from the page allocator as below.

Introduce DRM_XE_MAX_SYNCS (set to 1024) and reject any request
exceeding this limit.

"
------------[ cut here ]------------
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1217 at mm/page_alloc.c:5124 __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x2f8/0x2180 mm/page_alloc.c:5124
...
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 alloc_pages_mpol+0xe4/0x330 mm/mempolicy.c:2416
 ___kmalloc_large_node+0xd8/0x110 mm/slub.c:4317
 __kmalloc_large_node_noprof+0x18/0xe0 mm/slub.c:4348
 __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4364 [inline]
 __kmalloc_noprof+0x3d4/0x4b0 mm/slub.c:4388
 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:909 [inline]
 kmalloc_array_noprof include/linux/slab.h:948 [inline]
 xe_exec_ioctl+0xa47/0x1e70 drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_exec.c:158
 drm_ioctl_kernel+0x1f1/0x3e0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c:797
 drm_ioctl+0x5e7/0xc50 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c:894
 xe_drm_ioctl+0x10b/0x170 drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_device.c:224
 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
 __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:598 [inline]
 __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:584 [inline]
 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18b/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:584
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x380 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
...
"

v2: Add "Reported-by" and Cc stable kernels.
v3: Change XE_MAX_SYNCS from 64 to 1024. (Matt & Ashutosh)
v4: s/XE_MAX_SYNCS/DRM_XE_MAX_SYNCS/ (Matt)
v5: Do the check at the top of the exec func. (Matt)

(cherry picked from commit b07bac9bd708ec468cd1b8a5fe70ae2ac9b0a11c)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68802?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68802?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68802 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68802 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68802 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68802 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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-2025-68802 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-2025-68802/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68802/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68802
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68802
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68802

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68802/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.