CVE-2026-68205 media: v4l2-fwnode: Fix subdev owner overwritten in v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor()
A race condition in the Linux kernel media subsystem allows premature removal of sensor modules, potentially causing system crashes 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-2026-68205?
CVE-2026-68205 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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-fwnode: Fix subdev owner overwritten in v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor()
The v4l2 helper v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() calls v4l2_async_register_subdev(), which is a macro that expands to __v4l2_async_register_subdev(sd,THIS_MODULE). Since the macro is expanded inside v4l2-fwnode.c, THIS_MODULE resolves to the v4l2-fwnode module rather than the sensor driver module that originally set sd->owner. When v4l2-fwnode is built-in, THIS_MODULE evaluates to NULL, which then overwrites the sensor driver's owner with NULL.
This causes the problem that the sensor module's reference count is never incremented during async registration, so the module can be removed while the subdevice is still in use by a notifier (e.g., a CSI-2 receiver bridge driver).
Fix this by renaming v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() to __v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() with an added explicit module argument and introducing a wrapper macro: #define v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor(sd) \ __v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor(sd, THIS_MODULE)
This ensures the sensor driver module is properly referenced even when the sensor driver does not init the owner field before calling v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() and prevents premature module removal.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68205?
How do I fix CVE-2026-68205?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-68205 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68205 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-94749, BELL-CVE-2026-68205, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68205, GHSA-j4hh-43cp-m365, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68205.