Medium [CVE-2026-68211] Linux kernel: Buffer leak in media driver can lead to resource exhaustion
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68211 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26, Red Hat package: kernel.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: stm32-dcmipp: Return queued buffers on start_streaming() failure The vb2 framework hands buffers to the driver via buf_queue() before calling start_streaming().
If start_streaming() returns an error without first returning those buffers via vb2_buffer_done(), vb2_start_streaming() fires WARN_ON(owned_by_drv_count) and the queued buffers leak. dcmipp_bytecap_start_streaming() returned -EINVAL when the source subdevice could not be resolved from the media graph, before pm_runtime_resume_and_get() and media_pipeline_start() had been called.
The remaining error paths already converge on the err_buffer_done label, which calls dcmipp_bytecap_all_buffers_done(..., VB2_BUF_STATE_QUEUED). Jump to that label directly: the intermediate err_pm_put / err_media_pipeline_stop labels are skipped, which is correct because nothing they would undo has happened yet.
When the `start_streaming()` function fails to initialize, it does not properly return previously queued buffers. This oversight can lead to a leak of these buffers, potentially causing resource exhaustion and affecting system stability.
Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-772.
Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
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