Low [CVE-2026-68231] Linux kernel: airspy driver resource leak via unreturned buffers on streaming failure
This low-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68231 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: airspy: 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. airspy_start_streaming() returned -ENODEV early when the USB device had been disconnected (s->udev == NULL) without returning any buffers that buf_queue() had already accepted.
Take v4l2_lock first and jump to the existing err_clear_bit label, which already drains s->queued_bufs via vb2_buffer_done(..., VB2_BUF_STATE_QUEUED) before unlocking. This vulnerability occurs when the `airspy_start_streaming()` function encounters an error, such as a disconnected USB device, and fails to return previously queued buffers.
This oversight leads to a resource leak, which can result in a denial of service (DoS) condition for the system. Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 3.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L).
Weakness: CWE-772. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: kernel-rt.
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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