CVE-2026-23253: media: dvb-core: fix wrong reinitialization of ringbuffer on reopen

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-03-18 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-665

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: dvb-core: fix wrong reinitialization of ringbuffer on reopen dvb_dvr_open() calls dvb_ringbuffer_init() when a new reader opens the DVR device. dvb_ringbuffer_init() calls init_waitqueue_head(), which reinitializes the waitqueue list head to empty. Since dmxdev->dvr_buffer.queue is a shared waitqueue (all opens of the same DVR device share it), this orphans any existing waitqueue entries from io_uring poll or epoll, leaving them with stale prev/next pointers while the list head is reset to {self, self}. The waitqueue and spinlock in dvr_buffer are already properly initialized once in dvb_dmxdev_init(). The open path only needs to reset the buffer data pointer, size, and read/write positions. Replace the dvb_ringbuffer_init() call in dvb_dvr_open() with direct assignment of data/size and a call to dvb_ringbuffer_reset(), which properly resets pread, pwrite, and error with correct memory ordering without touching the waitqueue or spinlock.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 2.6.17 before 5.10.253; from 5.11 before 5.15.203; from 5.16 before 6.1.167; from 6.2 before 6.6.130; from 6.7 before 6.12.77; from 6.13 before 6.18.17 — fixed in 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.77. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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