Bug 2513341 (CVE-2026-68216)

Summary: CVE-2026-68216 kernel: media: pwc: Return queued buffers on start_streaming() failure
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
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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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's `pwc` media driver. When the `start_streaming()` function fails, it does not properly return queued buffers, leading to a resource leak. This can occur if the USB device is disconnected or if a mutex lock is interrupted. A local attacker could potentially exploit this to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) due to resource exhaustion.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-10 12:31:57 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

media: pwc: 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.

pwc's start_streaming() had two early returns that hit this trap:
-ENODEV when the USB device was already disconnected, and -ERESTARTSYS
when mutex_lock_interruptible() was interrupted by a signal.  Call the
existing pwc_cleanup_queued_bufs() helper with VB2_BUF_STATE_QUEUED
before returning (matching the state already used by the
pwc_isoc_init() error path in the same function).

This mirrors the uvcvideo fix in commit 4cf3b6fd54eb ("media: uvcvideo:
Return queued buffers on start_streaming() failure").