CVE-2026-53385
Public on 2026-07-19
Modified on 2026-07-24
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vc_screen: fix null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier() during concurrent vcs_write
A KASAN null-ptr-deref was observed in vcs_notifier():
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier+0x98/0x130
Read of size 2 at addr qmp_cmd_name: qmp_capabilities, arguments: {}
The issue is a race condition in vcs_write(). When the console_lock is
temporarily dropped (to copy data from userspace), the vc_data pointer
obtained from vcs_vc() may become stale. After re-acquiring the lock,
vcs_vc() is called again to re-validate the pointer. If the vc has been
deallocated in the meantime, vcs_vc() returns NULL, and the while loop
breaks (with written > 0). However, after the loop, vcs_scr_updated(vc)
is still called with the now-NULL vc pointer, leading to a null pointer
dereference in the notifier chain (vcs_notifier dereferences param->vc).
Fix this by adding a NULL check for vc before calling vcs_scr_updated().
vc_screen: fix null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier() during concurrent vcs_write
A KASAN null-ptr-deref was observed in vcs_notifier():
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier+0x98/0x130
Read of size 2 at addr qmp_cmd_name: qmp_capabilities, arguments: {}
The issue is a race condition in vcs_write(). When the console_lock is
temporarily dropped (to copy data from userspace), the vc_data pointer
obtained from vcs_vc() may become stale. After re-acquiring the lock,
vcs_vc() is called again to re-validate the pointer. If the vc has been
deallocated in the meantime, vcs_vc() returns NULL, and the while loop
breaks (with written > 0). However, after the loop, vcs_scr_updated(vc)
is still called with the now-NULL vc pointer, leading to a null pointer
dereference in the notifier chain (vcs_notifier dereferences param->vc).
Fix this by adding a NULL check for vc before calling vcs_scr_updated().
Severity
See what this means
CVSS v3 Base Score
See breakdown
Affected Packages
| Platform | Package | Release Date | Advisory | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2 - Core | kernel | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2 - Kernel-5.10 Extra | kernel | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2 - Kernel-5.15 Extra | kernel | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2 - Kernel-5.4 Extra | kernel | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2023 | kernel | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2023 | kernel6.12 | Pending Fix | ||
| Amazon Linux 2023 | kernel6.18 | Pending Fix |
CVSS Scores
| Score Type | Score | Vector | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux | CVSSv3 | 4.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |