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().
Severity
Medium severity
Medium
See what this means
CVSS v3 Base Score
4.7
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 2026-07-20 ALAS2KERNEL-5.10-2026-126 Fixed
Amazon Linux 2 - Kernel-5.15 Extra kernel 2026-07-27 ALAS2KERNEL-5.15-2026-111 Fixed
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 2026-07-20 ALAS2023-2026-1969 Fixed

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