CVE-2026-23467: drm/i915/dmc: Fix an unlikely NULL pointer deference at probe

Published Apr 3, 2026
·
Updated

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

drm/i915/dmc: Fix an unlikely NULL pointer deference at probe

inteldmcupdatedc6allowedcount() oopses when DMC hasn't been initialized, and dmc is thus NULL.

That would be the case when the call path is intelpowerdomainsinithw() -> {skl,bxt,icl}displaycoreinit() -> gen9setdcstate() -> inteldmcupdatedc6allowedcount(), as intelpowerdomainsinithw() is called before inteldmcinit().

However, gen9setdcstate() calls inteldmcupdatedc6allowedcount() conditionally, depending on the current and target DC states. At probe, the target is disabled, but if DC6 is enabled, the function is called, and an oops follows. Apparently it's quite unlikely that DC6 is enabled at probe, as we haven't seen this failure mode before.

It is also strange to have DC6 enabled at boot, since that would require the DMC firmware (loaded by BIOS); the BIOS loading the DMC firmware and the driver stopping / reprogramming the firmware is a poorly specified sequence and as such unlikely an intentional BIOS behaviour. It's more likely that BIOS is leaving an unintentionally enabled DC6 HW state behind (without actually loading the required DMC firmware for this).

The tracking of the DC6 allowed counter only works if starting / stopping the counter depends on the SW DC6 state vs. the current HW DC6 state (since stopping the counter requires the DC5 counter captured when the counter was started). Thus, using the HW DC6 state is incorrect and it also leads to the above oops. Fix both issues by using the SW DC6 state for the tracking.

This is v2 of the fix originally sent by Jani, updated based on the first Link: discussion below.

(cherry picked from commit 2344b93af8eb5da5d496b4e0529d35f0f559eaf0)

Affected Software

7 affected components
Linux Linux kernel
Linux Linux kernel>=6.16<6.18.20
Linux Linux kernel>=6.19<6.19.10
Linux Linux kernel=7.0-rc1
Linux Linux kernel=7.0-rc2
Linux Linux kernel=7.0-rc3
Linux Linux kernel=7.0-rc4

Event History

Apr 3, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:15 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:15 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:16 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software

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