LiveActive security incident?Get immediate response
CVE Record

CVE-2023-53678: drm/i915: Fix system suspend without fbdev being initialized

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Fix system suspend without fbdev being initialized If fbdev is not initialized for some reason - in practice on platforms without display - suspending fbdev should be skipped during system suspend, fix this up. While at it add an assert that suspending fbdev only happens with the display present. This fixes the following: [ 91.227923] PM: suspend entry (s2idle) [ 91.254598] Filesystems sync: 0.025 seconds [ 91.270518] Freezing user space processes [ 91.272266] Freezing user space processes completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds) [ 91.272686] OOM killer disabled. [ 91.272872] Freezing remaining freezable tasks [ 91.274295] Freezing remaining freezable tasks completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds) [ 91.659622] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000001c8 [ 91.659981] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 91.660252] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 91.660511] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 91.660647] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 91.660875] CPU: 4 PID: 917 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.2.0-rc7+ #54 [ 91.661185] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20221117gitfff6d81270b5-9.fc37 unknown [ 91.661680] RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x19/0x30 [ 91.661914] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 53 48 89 fb e8 62 d3 ff ff 31 c0 65 48 8b 14 25 00 15 03 00 <f0> 48 0f b1 13 75 06 5b c3 cc cc cc cc 48 89 df 5b eb b4 0f 1f 40 [ 91.662840] RSP: 0018:ffffa1e8011ffc08 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 91.663087] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000000001c8 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 91.663440] RDX: ffff8be455eb0000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 00000000000001c8 [ 91.663802] RBP: ffff8be459440000 R08: ffff8be459441f08 R09: ffffffff8e1432c0 [ 91.664167] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000001 [ 91.664532] R13: 00000000000001c8 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff8be442f4fb20 [ 91.664905] FS: 00007f28ffc16740(0000) GS:ffff8be4bb900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 91.665334] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 91.665626] CR2: 00000000000001c8 CR3: 0000000114926006 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [ 91.665988] PKRU: 55555554 [ 91.666131] Call Trace: [ 91.666265] <TASK> [ 91.666381] intel_fbdev_set_suspend+0x97/0x1b0 [i915] [ 91.666738] i915_drm_suspend+0xb9/0x100 [i915] [ 91.667029] pci_pm_suspend+0x78/0x170 [ 91.667234] ? __pfx_pci_pm_suspend+0x10/0x10 [ 91.667461] dpm_run_callback+0x47/0x150 [ 91.667673] __device_suspend+0x10a/0x4e0 [ 91.667880] dpm_suspend+0x134/0x270 [ 91.668069] dpm_suspend_start+0x79/0x80 [ 91.668272] suspend_devices_and_enter+0x11b/0x890 [ 91.668526] pm_suspend.cold+0x270/0x2fc [ 91.668737] state_store+0x46/0x90 [ 91.668916] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x11b/0x200 [ 91.669153] vfs_write+0x1e1/0x3a0 [ 91.669336] ksys_write+0x53/0xd0 [ 91.669510] do_syscall_64+0x58/0xc0 [ 91.669699] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0 [ 91.669980] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x18e/0x1c0 [ 91.670278] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x17/0x40 [ 91.670524] ? do_syscall_64+0x67/0xc0 [ 91.670717] ? __irq_exit_rcu+0x3d/0x140 [ 91.670931] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [ 91.671202] RIP: 0033:0x7f28ffd14284 v2: CC stable. (Jani) References: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/8015 (cherry picked from commit 9542d708409a41449e99c9a464deb5e062c4bee2)

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Discuss exposureBack to CVEs
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This is a Linux kernel graphics-driver bug that can crash a system during suspend when Intel i915 display fbdev support was not initialized, such as display-less platforms. The documented impact is availability disruption, not data theft or remote compromise.

Executive priority

Treat as a targeted availability risk for affected Linux fleets, not a broad internet-facing emergency. Patch through normal kernel maintenance, faster for critical systems that use suspend or run display-less Intel graphics configurations.

Technical view

The i915 suspend path called fbdev suspend logic even when fbdev was absent, leading to a NULL pointer dereference in kernel mode during system suspend. The fix skips fbdev suspend when fbdev is not initialized and asserts display presence.

Likely exposure

Exposure appears limited to Linux systems using the Intel i915 DRM driver, especially platforms without display where fbdev initialization may be absent. Source version data points to affected 6.1 and 6.2-era kernels, with distro backports needing verification.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not report active exploitation, public exploit use, KEV listing, remote attackability, or privilege-escalation behavior. The provided crash trace shows the issue during local system suspend.

Researcher notes

Evidence is strongest for a suspend-time kernel NULL pointer dereference in i915 when fbdev is missing. CVSS, CWE, and exploit details are absent from the bundle, so severity and attacker prerequisites remain partly unspecified.

Mitigation direction

  • Update to a vendor kernel containing the referenced stable fixes.
  • Check distribution advisories for backported i915 fixes before relying on upstream version numbers.
  • Prioritize systems where suspend is used and Intel i915 is loaded.
  • Consider operational workarounds for suspend only if vendor patching is delayed.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Linux hosts for kernel version and Intel i915 driver usage.
  • Review vendor kernel changelogs for the referenced stable commit IDs.
  • Test suspend and resume on representative display-less systems after patching.
  • Monitor logs for i915 suspend crashes or NULL pointer dereference traces.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2023-53678 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

Open ATT&CK lookup
Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
3Timeline events
0ADP providers
4Source links

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  2. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  3. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
LinuxLinuxf8cc091e05305231c8f747ca253a90ff0cea60b9, f8cc091e05305231c8f747ca253a90ff0cea60b9, f8cc091e05305231c8f747ca253a90ff0cea60b9unaffected
LinuxLinux6.1, 0, 6.1.18, 6.2.5, 6.3affected
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.