# CVE-2026-68281: drm/imagination: Count paired job fence as dependency in prepare_job() > A race condition in the Imagination GPU driver can cause job timeouts and kernel warnings, leading to denial of service. - **Severity:** Not scored - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Not needed - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 10 Aug 2026 - **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-68281, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68281, GHSA-xmch-cvc7-cmxw, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68281 ## What is CVE-2026-68281? CVE-2026-68281 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: Count paired job fence as dependency in prepare_job() The DRM scheduler's prepare_job() callback counts the remaining non-signaled native dependencies for a job, preventing job submission until those (plus job data and fence update) can fit in the job queue's CCCB. This means checking which dependencies can be waited upon in the firmware, i.e. whether they are backed by a UFO object, i.e. whether their drm_sched_fence::parent has been assigned to a pvr_queue_fence::base fence. That happens when the job owning the fence is submitted to the firmware. Paired geometry and fragment jobs are submitted at the same time, which means the dependency between them can't be checked this way before submission. Update job_count_remaining_native_deps() to take into account the dependency between paired jobs. This fixes cases where prepare_job() underestimated the space left in an almost full fragment CCCB, wrongly unblocking run_job(), which then returned early without writing the full sequence of commands to the CCCB. The above lead to kernel warnings such as the following and potentially job timeouts (depending on waiters on the missing commands): [ 375.702979] WARNING: drivers/gpu/drm/imagination/pvr_cccb.c:178 at pvr_cccb_write_command_with_header+0x2c4/0x330 [powervr], CPU#1: kworker/u16:3/47 [ 375.703160] Modules linked in: [ 375.703571] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 47 Comm: kworker/u16:3 Tainted: G W 7.0.0-rc2-g817eb6b11ad5 #40 PREEMPT [ 375.703613] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 375.703627] Hardware name: Texas Instruments AM625 SK (DT) [ 375.703645] Workqueue: powervr-sched drm_sched_run_job_work [gpu_sched] [ 375.703741] pstate: 80000005 (Nzcv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 375.703764] pc : pvr_cccb_write_command_with_header+0x2c4/0x330 [powervr] [ 375.703847] lr : pvr_queue_submit_job_to_cccb+0x578/0xa70 [powervr] [ 375.703921] sp : ffff800084a97650 [ 375.703934] x29: ffff800084a97740 x28: 0000000000000958 x27: ffff80008565d000 [ 375.703979] x26: 0000000000000030 x25: ffff800084a97680 x24: 0000000000001000 [ 375.704017] x23: ffff800084a97820 x22: 1ffff00010952ecc x21: 0000000000000008 [ 375.704056] x20: 00000000000006a8 x19: ffff00002ff7da88 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 375.704093] x17: 0000000020020000 x16: 0000000000020000 x15: 0000000000000000 [ 375.704132] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 [ 375.704168] x11: 000000000000f2f2 x10: 00000000f3000000 x9 : 00000000f3f3f3f3 [ 375.704206] x8 : 00000000f2f2f200 x7 : ffff700010952ecc x6 : 0000000000000008 [ 375.704243] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 1ffff00010acba00 x3 : 0000000000000000 [ 375.704279] x2 : 0000000000000007 x1 : 0000000000000fff x0 : 000000000000002f [ 375.704317] Call trace: [ 375.704331] pvr_cccb_write_command_with_header+0x2c4/0x330 [powervr] (P) [ 375.704411] pvr_queue_submit_job_to_cccb+0x578/0xa70 [powervr] [ 375.704487] pvr_queue_run_job+0x3a4/0x990 [powervr] [ 375.704562] drm_sched_run_job_work+0x580/0xd48 [gpu_sched] [ 375.704623] process_one_work+0x520/0x1288 [ 375.704658] worker_thread+0x3f0/0xb3c [ 375.704680] kthread+0x334/0x3d8 [ 375.704706] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 375.704736] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68281? ## How do I fix CVE-2026-68281? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2026-68281 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68281 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2026-68281 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-68281 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. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68281 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page. Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68281/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68281/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-68281 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-68281 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-68281 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68281/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.