CVE-2026-31571 drm/i915: Unlink NV12 planes earlier

Medium 5.5 Published 24 Apr 2026 Updated 11 May 2026

A logic error in the Linux kernel's i915 driver causes state corruption when unlinking NV12 planes, potentially leading to a system crash or denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2026-31571?

CVE-2026-31571 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

drm/i915: Unlink NV12 planes earlier

unlink_nv12_plane() will clobber parts of the plane state potentially already set up by plane_atomic_check(), so we must make sure not to call the two in the wrong order. The problem happens when a plane previously selected as a Y plane is now configured as a normal plane by user space. plane_atomic_check() will first compute the proper plane state based on the userspace request, and unlink_nv12_plane() later clears some of the state.

This used to work on account of unlink_nv12_plane() skipping the state clearing based on the plane visibility. But I removed that check, thinking it was an impossible situation. Now when that situation happens unlink_nv12_plane() will just WARN and proceed to clobber the state.

Rather than reverting to the old way of doing things, I think it's more clear if we unlink the NV12 planes before we even compute the new plane state.

(cherry picked from commit 017ecd04985573eeeb0745fa2c23896fb22ee0cc)

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31571?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-31571?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-31571 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31571 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-31571, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31571, GHSA-r966-3cpg-694w, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31571.