---
id: CVE-2026-53281
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  iommu/vt-d: Avoid NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption

  Commit 60f030f7418d ("iommu/vt-d: Avoid use of NULL after WARN_ON_ONCE")
  fixed a NULL pointer derefer…
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  iommu/vt-d: Avoid NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption

  Commit 60f030f7418d ("iommu/vt-d: Avoid use of NULL after WARN_ON_ONCE")
  fixed a NULL pointer derefer…
severity: high
cvss: 8.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-476
  - CWE-476
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.12.57, < 6.13'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13.3, < 6.18.33'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.10'
  - linux_kernel = 7.1
patched:
  - linux_kernel 7.0.10
published: '2026-06-26'
updated: '2026-07-17'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53281'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/79ea2feb917b05366b49d85573c9c5331f043b2c'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9022cb9ac0c2a72a57fa8ebf92ac74f953ca0153'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cdfe3c9f2c9e28a8651ee463c88ad191ced2f840'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53281'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2493728'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: >-
      https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-53281.json
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
tags:
  - nvd
epss: 0.0013
epssPercentile: 0.02978
ingestedAt: '2026-07-17T14:12:43.399Z'
---

## Overview

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

iommu/vt-d: Avoid NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption

Commit 60f030f7418d ("iommu/vt-d: Avoid use of NULL after WARN_ON_ONCE")
fixed a NULL pointer dereference in an unlikely situation partly.

If dev_pasid is not found in the dev_pasids list, it remains NULL.
However, the teardown operations are executed unconditionally, this lead
to a NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption.

If the domain was never attached to this IOMMU, info will be NULL, which
would cause an immediate dereference when checking --info->refcnt.

Even if info is not NULL, decrementing the refcount without having removed
a valid PASID might unbalance the count. This could lead to premature
dropping of the refcount to 0, potentially causing a use-after-free for the
remaining active devices sharing the domain.

Fix it by returning early if dev_pasid is NULL, before executing the
teardown operations.

Issue found by AI review and suggested by Kevin Tian.
https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260421031347.1408890-1-zhenzhong.duan%40intel.com

## Affected

- `linux_kernel >= 6.12.57, < 6.13`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.13.3, < 6.18.33`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.10`
- `linux_kernel = 7.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 7.0.10`