CVE-2026-89885 media: platform: mtk-mdp3: Fix SCP device refcounting
A reference counting error in the MediaTek MDP3 driver can lead to a use-after-free, potentially causing system crashes or arbitrary code execution.
- 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-2026-89885?
CVE-2026-89885 is a high-severity use after free 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: platform: mtk-mdp3: Fix SCP device refcounting
mdp_probe() first tries to get the SCP handle with scp_get(). When that fails, it falls back to looking up the SCP platform device with __get_pdev_by_id() and then reads its driver data.
The fallback lookup returns the platform device with a reference, just like scp_get() does. However, the fallback path currently drops that reference immediately after platform_get_drvdata(). The driver later still calls scp_put(mdp->scp) unconditionally from the probe error path and from mdp_video_device_release(), which drops the SCP device reference again.
Keep the fallback reference until the existing scp_put() call, so that the fallback path follows the same ownership rules as the scp_get() path.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89885?
How do I fix CVE-2026-89885?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-89885 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89885 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-89885, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89885, GHSA-86m7-6x4j-3vh5, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89885.