Executive brief
The IMX415 camera sensor driver in the Linux kernel fails to properly release a power management reference when VBLANK programming encounters an error. This causes a resource leak that can exhaust power management references and degrade system stability over time, particularly affecting devices that frequently adjust VBLANK settings or handle video stream errors.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a resource leak in the IMX415 i2c media driver's VBLANK control path. When pm_runtime_get_if_in_use() acquires a runtime PM reference and subsequent cci_write() call fails to program VMAX, the code performs an immediate return rather than executing the common pm_runtime_put() cleanup path. This results in an unreleased reference counter. The fix changes the error handling from "return ret" to "break" to ensure control flow reaches the pm_runtime_put() statement. The vulnerability requires the VBLANK control to be written via the V4L2 control interface while the sensor is in use.
Affected products
- Linux Linux kernel affected versions through 2026-08-05
Timeline
- 2026-09-16: disclosed
- 2026-08-05: patched: Fix commit bea3001e0f32527a291444e527e84a7ea9b546d4