CVE-2026-90363 drm/msm: don't tear down KMS twice when KMS init fails
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel MSM DRM driver causes a crash when KMS initialization fails, leading to 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-2026-90363?
CVE-2026-90363 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 17 Sep 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/msm: don't tear down KMS twice when KMS init fails
When priv->kms_init() (mdp4_kms_init() / mdp5_kms_init()) fails partway through, both display drivers already tear their KMS state down via mdp4_destroy() / mdp5_kms_destroy() before returning the error. The common error path in msm_drm_init() then runs msm_drm_uninit() -> msm_drm_kms_uninit(), which tries to destroy the very same KMS a second time, which causes a use-after-free crash.
Bring MDP4/MDP5 in line with the DPU driver whose dpu_kms_init() doesn't perform error cleanup on the failure. Let the common path own the cleanup, instead of freeing the KMS from their error paths.
The crash trace for the reference:
__lock_acquire from lock_acquire (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5906 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5863) lock_acquire from touch_wq_lockdep_map (kernel/workqueue.c:4094 (discriminator 1)) touch_wq_lockdep_map from __flush_workqueue (kernel/workqueue.c:4136) __flush_workqueue from msm_drm_kms_uninit (drivers/gpu/drm/msm/msm_kms.c:243 (discriminator 33)) msm_drm_kms_uninit from msm_drm_uninit (drivers/gpu/drm/msm/msm_drv.c:93) msm_drm_uninit from msm_drm_init (drivers/gpu/drm/msm/msm_drv.c:184) msm_drm_init from try_to_bring_up_aggregate_device (drivers/base/component.c:249 drivers/base/component.c:227) try_to_bring_up_aggregate_device from __component_add (drivers/base/component.c:269 drivers/base/component.c:748) __component_add from dsi_host_attach (drivers/gpu/drm/msm/dsi/dsi_host.c:1739) dsi_host_attach from mipi_dsi_attach (drivers/gpu/drm/drm_mipi_dsi.c:383) mipi_dsi_attach from sharp_nt_panel_probe (drivers/gpu/drm/panel/panel-sharp-ls043t1le01.c:247)
Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/742068/
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90363?
How do I fix CVE-2026-90363?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-90363 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90363 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-90363, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90363, GHSA-356c-wqmf-cf5h, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90363.