CVE-2026-89896 media: cedrus: fix memory leak in cedrus_init_ctrls()
A memory leak in the Cedrus VPU driver allows local attackers to exhaust kernel memory, potentially causing 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-2026-89896?
CVE-2026-89896 is a memory corruption 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: cedrus: fix memory leak in cedrus_init_ctrls()
In cedrus_init_ctrls(), the V4L2 control handler is initialized before allocating memory for ctx->ctrls. If this allocation fails, the function returns -ENOMEM without freeing the previously allocated handler resources, leading to a memory leak.
Fix this by calling v4l2_ctrl_handler_free() on the ctx->ctrls allocation failure path.
The bug was first flagged by an experimental analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs while analyzing v6.13-rc1. The tool is still under development and is not yet publicly available. Manual inspection confirms that the bug is still present in v7.1.1.
An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have an Allwinner SoC or board with a Cedrus VPU available to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89896?
How do I fix CVE-2026-89896?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-89896 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89896 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-101565, BELL-CVE-2026-89896, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89896, GHSA-832p-ggr6-5385, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89896.