Bug 2513331 (CVE-2026-68205)

Summary: CVE-2026-68205 kernel: media: v4l2-fwnode: Fix subdev owner overwritten in v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. The `v4l2-fwnode` module, responsible for video device node management, incorrectly handles module ownership during asynchronous subdevice registration. This can lead to a sensor module's reference count not being properly incremented. As a result, the module may be prematurely removed while still active, potentially causing system instability or a denial of service.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-10 12:31:25 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

media: v4l2-fwnode: Fix subdev owner overwritten in v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor()

The v4l2 helper v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() calls
v4l2_async_register_subdev(), which is a macro that expands to
__v4l2_async_register_subdev(sd,THIS_MODULE). Since the macro is expanded
inside v4l2-fwnode.c, THIS_MODULE resolves to the v4l2-fwnode module
rather than the sensor driver module that originally set sd->owner. When
v4l2-fwnode is built-in, THIS_MODULE evaluates to NULL, which then
overwrites the sensor driver's owner with NULL.

This causes the problem that the sensor module's reference count is never
incremented during async registration, so the module can be removed while
the subdevice is still in use by a notifier (e.g., a CSI-2 receiver
bridge driver).

Fix this by renaming v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() to
__v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() with an added explicit module
argument and introducing a wrapper macro:
    #define v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor(sd) \
        __v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor(sd, THIS_MODULE)

This ensures the sensor driver module is properly referenced even when
the sensor driver does not init the owner field before calling
v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() and prevents premature module removal.