# CVE-2026-52951: drm/xe/dma-buf: handle empty bo and UAF races

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's Xe driver allows a use-after-free or null dereference, potentially causing a system crash.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 24 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-52951, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52951, GHSA-pq4c-fm9x-v9hj, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-52951, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-52951

## What is CVE-2026-52951?

CVE-2026-52951 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 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/dma-buf: handle empty bo and UAF races

There look to be some nasty races here when triggering the
invalidate_mappings hook:

1) We do xe_bo_alloc() followed by the attach, before the actual full bo
   init step in xe_dma_buf_init_obj(). However the bo is visible on the
   attachments list after the attach.  This is bad since exporter driver,
   say amdgpu, can at any time call back into our invalidate_mappings hook,
   with an empty/bogus bo, leading to potential bugs/crashes.

2) Similar to 1) but here we get a UAF, when the invalidate_mappings
   hook is triggered. For example, we get as far as xe_bo_init_locked()
   but this fails in some way. But here the bo will be freed on error, but
   we still have it attached from dma-buf pov, so if the
   invalidate_mappings is now triggered then the bo we access is gone and
   we trigger UAF and more bugs/crashes.

To fix this, move the attach step until after we actually have a fully
set up buffer object. Note that the bo is not published to userspace
until later, so not sure what the comment "Don't publish the bo
until we have a valid attachment", is referring to.

We have at least two different customers reporting hitting a NULL ptr
deref in evict_flags when importing something from amdgpu, followed by
triggering the evict flow. Hit rate is also pretty low, which would
hint at some kind of race, so something like 1) or 2) might explain
this.

v2:
  - Shuffle the order of the ops slightly (no functional change)
  - Improve the comment to better explain the ordering (Matt B)

(cherry picked from commit af1f2ad0c59fe4e2f924c526f66e968289d77971)

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free), CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52951?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-52951?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-52951 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52951 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-2026-52951 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-52951 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 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-2026-52951 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-2026-52951/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52951/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52951
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52951
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-52951

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52951/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.