Executive brief
The Intel IPU7 (Image Processing Unit) is a media processing component used in Linux kernel drivers for camera and imaging workloads. A resource leak in the device resume function causes the runtime power management reference count to remain elevated when resume fails, potentially leading to device power management failures and memory exhaustion over time. This prevents the device from properly entering low-power states and can degrade system performance and battery life on affected systems.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a resource leak in the ipu7_resume() function within the staging media IPU7 driver. The function calls pm_runtime_get_sync() to increment the device usage count, but when the resume operation fails, the error path returns without releasing the reference, leaving the usage count elevated. This violates the reference counting contract and prevents the runtime PM subsystem from powering down the device. The fix replaces pm_runtime_get_sync() with pm_runtime_resume_and_get(), which automatically balances the usage count on failure. The function is called during device power state transitions and is reachable to any code that triggers device resume. A patch is available in the stable Linux kernel tree (commit b298b80814dd0fc3cb1c8c0e0082fc14fdb5fecf).
Affected products
- Linux Linux kernel 5.0 and later (through IPU7 driver inclusion)
Timeline
- 2026-09-17: disclosed: CVE-2026-93143 published
- 2026-09-14: patched: Patch merged in stable Linux kernel tree