Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-53137: Linux Kernel AMD Display out-of-bounds write in HDMI HDCP2 authentication

CVE-2026-53137 · Severity: info · Published 2026-06-25

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's AMD display driver affecting how it handles HDMI connections. When a computer is connected to a malicious or faulty HDMI device (like a repeater), that device could send a specially crafted message that exceeds the computer's memory capacity for that specific task. This could lead to a system crash or potentially allow for unauthorized memory access, impacting the stability and security of the workstation.

Technical details

The vulnerability is an out-of-bounds write located in `mod_hdcp_read_rx_id_list()` within the `drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/modules/hdcp/hdcp_ddc.c` component. During HDCP 2.x repeater authentication over HDMI, the driver reads the sink's RxStatus register and extracts a 10-bit message size field. This value, which can be up to 1023, was used as the read length for the `rx_id_list` without being clamped to the actual destination buffer size of 177 bytes. A malicious HDMI repeater could advertise a message size larger than the buffer, triggering an out-of-bounds write during the I2C read operation. The fix implements a `MIN()` clamp to ensure the read length does not exceed the buffer size.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 5.6 to 6.13.y

Timeline

  • 2026-06-25: disclosed
  • 2026-06-25: advisory

References

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