Linux Kernel up to 6.12.82/6.18.23/6.19.13/7.0.0 vidtv_start_streaming memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.82/6.18.23/6.19.13/7.0.0. It has been classified as critical. This issue affects the function vidtv_start_streaming. Performing a manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-31585. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.82/6.18.23/6.19.13/7.0.0. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function vidtv_start_streaming. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: vidtv: fix nfeeds state corruption on start_streaming failure syzbot reported a memory leak in vidtv_psi_service_desc_init [1]. When vidtv_start_streaming() fails inside vidtv_start_feed(), the nfeeds counter is left incremented even though no feed was actually started. This corrupts the driver state: subsequent start_feed calls see nfeeds > 1 and skip starting the mux, while stop_feed calls eventually try to stop a non-existent stream. This state corruption can also lead to memory leaks, since the mux and channel resources may be partially allocated during a failed start_streaming but never cleaned up, as the stop path finds dvb->streaming == false and returns early. Fix by decrementing nfeeds back when start_streaming fails, keeping the counter in sync with the actual number of active feeds. [1] BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888145b50820 (size 32): comm "syz.0.17", pid 6068, jiffies 4294944486 backtrace (crc 90a0c7d4): vidtv_psi_service_desc_init+0x74/0x1b0 drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_psi.c:288 vidtv_channel_s302m_init+0xb1/0x2a0 drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_channel.c:83 vidtv_channels_init+0x1b/0x40 drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_channel.c:524 vidtv_mux_init+0x516/0xbe0 drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_mux.c:518 vidtv_start_streaming drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_bridge.c:194 [inline] vidtv_start_feed+0x33e/0x4d0 drivers/media/test-drivers/vidtv/vidtv_bridge.c:239

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-31585 since 03/09/2026. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 310317 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-31585), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.83, 6.18.24, 6.19.14 or 7.0.1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 98c22210aeadce67d9d20059f0dbbd01ba7fdbba/25f19e476ab15defe698504212899fdb9f7cd61b/83110c2c8c46c035c2e0fc8ff3e4991183bf9ccd/4bf95f797edd63c93330eafb6d6e670982344b9b is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (310317) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1279). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.12.78
• 6.12.79
• 6.12.80
• 6.12.81
• 6.12.82
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 6.19.10
• 6.19.11
• 6.19.12
• 6.19.13
• 7.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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