Executive brief
The bcm2835-unicam driver, used for camera interface support in the Linux kernel, fails to properly clean up allocated memory when errors occur during initialization or when the driver is unloaded. This memory leak could accumulate over time on systems that repeatedly load and unload the driver, potentially degrading system stability.
Technical details
A memory leak exists in the bcm2835-unicam media driver where the v4l2_async_nf_add_fwnode_remote() function allocates async control structures that are not freed in error and module removal paths. The vulnerability is a missing call to v4l2_async_nf_cleanup() in two code paths: the unicam_async_nf_init() error handler and the unicam_remove() function. The leak was discovered via kmemleak detection, revealing 64-byte allocations remaining after rmmod. The fix adds v4l2_async_nf_cleanup() calls to properly deallocate resources in both paths.
Affected products
- Linux Linux kernel affected versions prior to the fix commit
Timeline
- 2026-09-17: disclosed