# CVE-2026-89899: media: cec: disable delayed work before freeing an interrupted transmit

> A race condition in the Linux kernel CEC driver allows freeing memory while delayed work is pending, potentially leading to use-after-free and system crashes.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-101241, BELL-CVE-2026-89899, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89899, GHSA-2c95-6v37-x3vh, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89899

## What is CVE-2026-89899?

CVE-2026-89899 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: cec: disable delayed work before freeing an interrupted transmit

cec_transmit_msg_fh() drops adap->lock to wait for a blocking transmit in
wait_for_completion_killable(). If that wait is interrupted by a signal,
cancel_delayed_work_sync() can run before the CEC kthread arms the reply
timeout via schedule_delayed_work(&data->work) in cec_transmit_done_ts().
The work is then armed after the cancel, and the data is freed with its
delayed_work still pending:

  ODEBUG: free active (active state 0) object: ... hint: cec_wait_timeout

Use disable_delayed_work_sync(): it cancels the work and disables it, so
the later schedule_delayed_work() becomes a no-op and the work cannot be
re-armed. The data is freed right after, so it need not be re-enabled.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89899?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-89899?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-89899 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89899 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-89899 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-89899 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89899 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-2026-89899/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89899/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-89899
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-89899
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-89899

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89899/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.