Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-46205: Linux Kernel atomisp driver private IOCTL restriction

CVE-2026-46205 · Severity: info · Published 2026-05-28

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A security vulnerability was identified in the Intel Atom Image Signal Processor (atomisp) driver within the Linux kernel. This driver is responsible for managing camera hardware on certain Intel-based devices. The vulnerability involves 'private IOCTLs,' which are specialized commands that could potentially be misused to cause system instability or unauthorized access. As a precaution, these commands have been disabled to protect users from potential exploits.

Technical details

The vulnerability exists within the atomisp driver's IOCTL handling logic in 'drivers/staging/media/atomisp/pci/atomisp_ioctl.c'. The private IOCTL handlers (vidioc_default) were deemed unsafe, potentially allowing for undefined behavior or security boundary violations when processed. The fix involves explicitly disallowing all private IOCTL commands by returning -EINVAL at the beginning of the 'atomisp_vidioc_default' function. This is a proactive mitigation in the staging driver to prevent exploitation of potentially buggy IOCTL code paths. Patches have been backported to multiple stable kernel branches.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel atomisp driver in staging/media

Timeline

  • 2026-02-26: patched: Initial fix authored by Sakari Ailus
  • 2026-05-28: disclosed: CVE published and NVD record created

References

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