Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-31599: Linux Kernel NULL pointer dereference in vidtv driver

CVE-2026-31599 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2026-04-24

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's vidtv driver, which is used for digital television testing and simulation. Under specific conditions where system memory is low, the driver fails to properly handle a failed memory allocation, leading to a system crash (General Protection Fault). This could allow a local user to cause a denial-of-service condition, impacting system availability.

Technical details

A NULL pointer dereference exists in the Linux kernel's media/vidtv test driver. The function vidtv_psi_pmt_stream_init() can return NULL upon memory allocation failure; however, vidtv_channel_pmt_match_sections() fails to validate this return value. When the 'tail' pointer is NULL, a subsequent call to vidtv_psi_desc_assign() attempts to dereference an offset from that NULL pointer, triggering a general protection fault. This is a local vulnerability that can be triggered during the initialization of SI (Service Information) sections. Patches have been released across multiple stable kernel branches to add the necessary NULL checks and proper cleanup of allocated stream chains.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 5.10 to 6.6.136, 6.7 to 6.12.83, 6.13 to 6.18.24, 6.19 to 6.19.14, 7.0 to 7.0.1

Timeline

  • 2026-04-24: disclosed: CVE published and assigned to the Linux kernel project.
  • 2026-04-22: patched: Fixes committed to various stable kernel branches.

References