CVE-2026-89896: media: cedrus: fix memory leak in cedrus_init_ctrls()

Severity: unknown
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: 2026-09-16 · updated 2026-10-19

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.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 4.20 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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