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CVE-2026-68206: media: v4l2-ctrls: validate HEVC active reference counts

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-08-10 · updated 2026-10-19
• Weakness: CWE-20

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: v4l2-ctrls: validate HEVC active reference counts HEVC slice parameters are shared stateless V4L2 controls, but the common validation path does not verify the active L0/L1 reference counts before driver-specific code consumes them. The original report came from Cedrus, but the active count bounds are not Cedrus-specific. Validate them in the common HEVC slice control path so stateless HEVC drivers get the same basic guarantees as soon as the control is queued. Do not reject ref_idx_l0/ref_idx_l1 entries here. Existing userspace may use out-of-range sentinel values such as 0xff for missing references, and some hardware can use that information for concealment. Keep this common check limited to the active reference counts.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: 5.14 — fixed in 7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3068ab802fc98b121dcb451e1f7f4d338ffc7a19
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3299c3905f3fb439ebd892658b87bc76c93ae116
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9a998cc1c348769262d433acb7d238c5fac4b2e0
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/afbe4bc252d90a6f8fad869b06d5430f615f22f9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b01df98a6669d2b67d8aed816021b327fd905998
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dbaf0e0023e2f9332c5164822def7f80b7d2c5ef

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