CVE-2026-68206

media: v4l2-ctrls: validate HEVC active reference counts

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: August 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 09:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

5.14d395a78db9eabd12633b39e05c80e803543b6590
Vendor states this is fixed in 3068ab802fc98b121dcb451e1f7f4d338ffc7a19 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3299c3905f3fb439ebd892658b87bc76c93ae116 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 9a998cc1c348769262d433acb7d238c5fac4b2e0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in afbe4bc252d90a6f8fad869b06d5430f615f22f9 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in b01df98a6669d2b67d8aed816021b327fd905998 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in dbaf0e0023e2f9332c5164822def7f80b7d2c5ef (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.14 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.183 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.101 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.42 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.148 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1.6 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED
CWE
CWE-20

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