CVE-2026-43189 media: v4l2-async: Fix error handling on steps after finding a match
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's V4L2 async subsystem can cause a system crash during error handling after a device match.
- 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-2026-43189?
CVE-2026-43189 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 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:
media: v4l2-async: Fix error handling on steps after finding a match
Once an async connection is found to be matching with an fwnode, a sub-device may be registered (in case it wasn't already), its bound operation is called, ancillary links are created, the async connection is added to the sub-device's list of connections and removed from the global waiting connection list. Further on, the sub-device's possible own notifier is searched for possible additional matches.
Fix these specific issues:
- If v4l2_async_match_notify() failed before the sub-notifier handling, the async connection was unbound and its entry removed from the sub-device's async connection list. The latter part was also done in v4l2_async_match_notify().
- The async connection's sd field was only set after creating ancillary links in v4l2_async_match_notify(). It was however dereferenced in v4l2_async_unbind_subdev_one(), which was called on error path of v4l2_async_match_notify() failure.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43189?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-43189?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-43189 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43189 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-43189, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43189, GHSA-qjw7-wgfm-9frq, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43189, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-43189, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43189 and 2 more.