CVE-2026-89871 media: video-i2c: fix kthread error pointer left in kthread_vid_cap on failure
A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash in the video-i2c driver by exploiting an unhandled error pointer, causing a denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-89871?
CVE-2026-89871 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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: video-i2c: fix kthread error pointer left in kthread_vid_cap on failure
kthread_run() returns an ERR_PTR on failure, not NULL. When start_streaming() fails, data->kthread_vid_cap is left holding this error pointer instead of being cleared.
This causes two subsequent bugs: 1. A future call to start_streaming() sees a non-NULL kthread_vid_cap and returns 0 (success) immediately, without actually starting the capture thread. 2. A call to stop_streaming() checks 'kthread_vid_cap == NULL' which is false for an error pointer, and proceeds to call kthread_stop() on the error pointer, leading to a kernel crash.
Fix this by resetting kthread_vid_cap to NULL on failure before jumping to the error path.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89871?
How do I fix CVE-2026-89871?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-89871 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89871 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-101376, BELL-CVE-2026-89871, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89871, GHSA-5fv9-jv39-xhgw, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89871.