CVE-2026-68206 PUBLISHED

media: v4l2-ctrls: validate HEVC active reference counts

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 30.07.2026 Published: 10.08.2026 Updated: 10.08.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

media: v4l2-ctrls: validate HEVC active reference counts

HEVC slice parameters are shared stateless V4L2 controls, but the common validation path does not verify the active L0/L1 reference counts before driver-specific code consumes them.

The original report came from Cedrus, but the active count bounds are not Cedrus-specific. Validate them in the common HEVC slice control path so stateless HEVC drivers get the same basic guarantees as soon as the control is queued.

Do not reject ref_idx_l0/ref_idx_l1 entries here. Existing userspace may use out-of-range sentinel values such as 0xff for missing references, and some hardware can use that information for concealment. Keep this common check limited to the active reference counts.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590 to 9a998cc1c348769262d433acb7d238c5fac4b2e0 (excl.)
  • affected from d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590 to dbaf0e0023e2f9332c5164822def7f80b7d2c5ef (excl.)
  • affected from d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590 to 3068ab802fc98b121dcb451e1f7f4d338ffc7a19 (excl.)
  • affected from d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590 to b01df98a6669d2b67d8aed816021b327fd905998 (excl.)
  • affected from d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590 to afbe4bc252d90a6f8fad869b06d5430f615f22f9 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.14 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.14 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.148 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.101 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.42 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.6 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2-rc1 to * (incl.)

References