CVE-2026-43229
Kernel panic in ChipsMedia WAVE5 Video Driver
Publication date: 2026-05-06
Last updated on: 2026-05-06
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's chips-media wave5 driver. It occurs because the device cleanup order was incorrect during the removal process.
Specifically, the video device unregistration was done after powering down the hardware and disabling power management runtime. This caused the worker thread to still be active and attempt to read hardware registers from powered-off hardware.
When the hardware is powered down but the video devices remain registered, a periodic timer triggers work that reads hardware registers, leading to a bus error (synchronous external abort) and causing the kernel to panic.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can cause random kernel panics during encoding operations on affected systems.
A kernel panic is a fatal error that stops the operating system from functioning, which can lead to system crashes, data loss, and service interruptions.
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability manifests as random kernel panics during encoding operations involving the wave5 media driver in the Linux kernel.
You can detect it by monitoring your system logs for kernel panic messages similar to the following:
- Internal error: synchronous external abort: 0000000096000010
- Call trace involving wave5_vdi_read_register and wave5_vpu_irq_work_fn
To check for such kernel panic messages, you can use commands like:
- dmesg | grep -i 'wave5_vdi_read_register'
- journalctl -k | grep -i 'synchronous external abort'
- grep -i 'kernel panic' /var/log/kern.log
Additionally, monitoring for unexpected reboots or crashes during encoding operations involving the wave5 driver can help detect this issue.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
The vulnerability is caused by improper device cleanup order in the wave5 media driver, leading to kernel panics when hardware registers are accessed after the device is powered down.
Immediate mitigation steps include:
- Update the Linux kernel to a version where this issue is fixed, which involves moving video device unregistration to the beginning of the remove function.
- Avoid running encoding operations that use the wave5 driver until the fix is applied.
- If updating the kernel is not immediately possible, consider disabling the wave5 media driver or related modules to prevent triggering the vulnerable code path.
How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:
The provided information does not include any details about how this vulnerability affects compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.