Medium [CVE-2026-68217] Linux kernel pwc driver: Resource leak can lead to denial of service
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68217 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: pwc: Drain fill_buf on start_streaming() failure pwc_isoc_init() submits its isochronous URBs with usb_submit_urb(.., GFP_KERNEL) in a loop.
After the first URB is submitted, its completion handler pwc_isoc_handler() can run on another CPU before the loop finishes: start_streaming() pwc_isoc_init() usb_submit_urb(urbs[0], GFP_KERNEL) pwc_isoc_handler(urbs[0]) pdev->fill_buf = pwc_get_next_fill_buf(pdev) usb_submit_urb(urbs[i>0],..) -> fails pwc_isoc_cleanup(pdev) /* kills URBs */ return ret; pwc_cleanup_queued_bufs(pdev, VB2_BUF_STATE_QUEUED) pwc_get_next_fill_buf() detaches a buffer from pdev->queued_bufs and stores it in pdev->fill_buf.
The error path in start_streaming() only drains pdev->queued_bufs, so the buffer parked in pdev->fill_buf is leaked. vb2_start_streaming() then triggers WARN_ON(owned_by_drv_count). stop_streaming() already handles this since commit 80b0963e1698 ("[media] pwc: fix WARN_ON"), which added the fill_buf drain in the teardown path but not in the start_streaming() error path.
Mirror that handling on failure so start_streaming() returns with no buffer owned by the driver.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4; and 1 more.
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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