Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Intel 'xe' graphics driver can cause a system crash (kernel oops) during power management operations like suspend or shutdown. This occurs on specific hardware configurations where the display is disabled via internal hardware fuses. While this primarily affects system stability and availability, it could lead to unexpected data loss if the system crashes before saving work.
Technical details
A NULL pointer dereference exists in the Linux kernel 'xe' DRM driver within the xe_display_flush_cleanup_work() function. The driver fails to correctly identify cases where display hardware is disabled via fuses during runtime initialization, leading it to attempt iterations (for_each_intel_crtc) on uninitialized mode configurations. This occurs because the probe_display flag is not updated after intel_display_device_info_runtime_init() detects the absence of display hardware. An attacker with sufficient privileges to trigger system suspend or shutdown could cause a kernel panic. The issue has been resolved by ensuring the driver checks for display presence earlier and correctly unsets display features when hardware is missing.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 6.8 to 7.0.12
Timeline
- 2026-05-15: disclosed: Initial patch submitted by Jani Nikula
- 2026-06-19: patched: Patch committed to stable trees by Greg Kroah-Hartman
- 2026-06-25: advisory: CVE-2026-53142 published