---
id: CVE-2025-38669
title: 'Revert "drm/gem-shmem: Use dma_buf from GEM object instance"'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  Revert "drm/gem-shmem: Use dma_buf from GEM object instance"

  This reverts commit 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11.

  The dma_buf field in struct drm_gem_object …
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11 <
    291a77604858a8b47cf6640a12b76e97f99e00ed
  - >-
    Linux >= 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11 <
    6d496e9569983a0d7a05be6661126d0702cf94f7
  - Linux 6.15
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T21:06:22.874605Z'
published: '2025-08-22'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T21:12:51.468Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38669'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/291a77604858a8b47cf6640a12b76e97f99e00ed'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d496e9569983a0d7a05be6661126d0702cf94f7'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00133
epssPercentile: 0.02862
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:32.018Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Revert "drm/gem-shmem: Use dma_buf from GEM object instance"

This reverts commit 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11.

The dma_buf field in struct drm_gem_object is not stable over the
object instance's lifetime. The field becomes NULL when user space
releases the final GEM handle on the buffer object. This resulted
in a NULL-pointer deref.

Workarounds in commit 5307dce878d4 ("drm/gem: Acquire references on
GEM handles for framebuffers") and commit f6bfc9afc751 ("drm/framebuffer:
Acquire internal references on GEM handles") only solved the problem
partially. They especially don't work for buffer objects without a DRM
framebuffer associated.

Hence, this revert to going back to using .import_attach->dmabuf.

v3:
- cc stable

## Affected

- `Linux >= 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11 < 291a77604858a8b47cf6640a12b76e97f99e00ed`
- `Linux >= 1a148af06000e545e714fe3210af3d77ff903c11 < 6d496e9569983a0d7a05be6661126d0702cf94f7`
- `Linux 6.15`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.