---
id: CVE-2025-38673
title: 'Revert "drm/gem-framebuffer: Use dma_buf from GEM object instance"'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

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

  This reverts commit cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065.

  The dma_buf field in struct drm_gem_o…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065 <
    e31f5a1c2cd38bf977736cdfa79444e19d4005ec
  - >-
    Linux >= cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065 <
    2712ca878b688682ac2ce02aefc413fc76019cd9
  - Linux 6.15
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T21:06:38.842528Z'
published: '2025-08-22'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T21:12:51.778Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38673'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e31f5a1c2cd38bf977736cdfa79444e19d4005ec'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2712ca878b688682ac2ce02aefc413fc76019cd9'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.0013
epssPercentile: 0.02676
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:32.008Z'
---

## Overview

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

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

This reverts commit cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065.

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 >= cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065 < e31f5a1c2cd38bf977736cdfa79444e19d4005ec`
- `Linux >= cce16fcd7446dcff7480cd9d2b6417075ed81065 < 2712ca878b688682ac2ce02aefc413fc76019cd9`
- `Linux 6.15`

## Remediation

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