CVE-2026-68261 drm/imagination: fix error checking of pvr_vm_context_lookup()

Not scored Published Updated

A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash by passing an invalid VM context handle to the Imagination DRM driver due to incorrect error checking.

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-2026-68261?

CVE-2026-68261 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:

drm/imagination: fix error checking of pvr_vm_context_lookup()

Since pvr_vm_context_lookup() returns either NULL or a pointer, then stop using IS_ERR() for checking the return value.

Using IS_ERR() leads to the kernel oops reported below. It can be reproduced by passing an invalid VM context handle from userspace to the DRM_IOCTL_PVR_CREATE_CONTEXT ioctl.

[ 92.733119] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000148 [ 92.742042] Mem abort info: [ 92.744890] ESR = 0x0000000096000004 [ 92.748686] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 92.754020] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 92.757154] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 92.760337] FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault [ 92.765243] Data abort info: [ 92.768129] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 92.773626] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 92.778763] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 92.784098] user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=000000088ed23000 [ 92.790550] [0000000000000148] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=0000000000000000 [ 92.797381] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1] SMP [ 92.803027] Modules linked in: powervr [ 92.852533] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 409 Comm: triangle Not tainted 7.1.0-rc5-g98b46e693b91 #1 PREEMPT [ 92.861385] Hardware name: Texas Instruments AM68 SK (DT) [ 92.866766] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 92.873709] pc : pvr_vm_get_fw_mem_context+0x0/0xc [powervr] [ 92.879376] lr : pvr_queue_create+0x26c/0x440 [powervr] [ 92.884595] sp : ffff8000837fbb00 [ 92.887895] x29: ffff8000837fbb60 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: ffff8000837fbce8 [ 92.895015] x26: ffff000807f61a40 x25: ffff000807f61a00 x24: ffff000807f64400 [ 92.902135] x23: ffff00080a5ab000 x22: ffff800079b24730 x21: ffff000807f61800 [ 92.909254] x20: ffff00080999e680 x19: 0000000000000000 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 92.916373] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000001 [ 92.923492] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000002 x12: ffff80008145b298 [ 92.930611] x11: ffff8000844e5000 x10: ffff80008165a130 x9 : 0000000000000100 [ 92.937730] x8 : 0000000000000001 x7 : ffff0008076b27e0 x6 : ffff00080ec43b7c [ 92.944850] x5 : ffff00080ec43b78 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : ffff00080999e680 [ 92.951968] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 92.959088] Call trace: [ 92.961521] pvr_vm_get_fw_mem_context+0x0/0xc [powervr] (P) [ 92.967173] pvr_context_create+0x190/0x410 [powervr] [ 92.972218] pvr_ioctl_create_context+0x44/0x8c [powervr] [ 92.977608] drm_ioctl_kernel+0xbc/0x124 [drm] [ 92.982127] drm_ioctl+0x1f8/0x4dc [drm] [ 92.986098] __arm64_sys_ioctl+0xac/0x104 [ 92.990102] invoke_syscall+0x54/0x10c [ 92.993842] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x40/0xe0 [ 92.998532] do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28 [ 93.001835] el0_svc+0x38/0x11c [ 93.004969] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa0/0xe4 [ 93.009139] el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c [ 93.012792] Code: aa1703e0 d2800014 95cb0ba4 17ffffe8 (f940a400) [ 93.018869] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68261?

How do I fix CVE-2026-68261?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-68261 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-68261, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68261, GHSA-72mp-653c-9r74, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68261.

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