CVE-2026-45928

Analyzed Analyzed - Analysis Complete

Memory Leak in ChipsMedia WAVE5 Linux Kernel Driver

Publication date: 2026-05-27

Last updated on: 2026-06-25

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: chips-media: wave5: Fix memory leak on codec_info allocation failure In wave5_vpu_open_enc() and wave5_vpu_open_dec(), a vpu instance is allocated via kzalloc(). If the subsequent allocation for inst->codec_info fails, the functions return -ENOMEM without freeing the previously allocated instance, causing a memory leak. Fix this by calling kfree() on the instance in this error path to ensure it is properly released.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-05-27

Last Modified

2026-06-25

Generated

2026-07-06

AI Q&A

2026-05-27

EPSS Evaluated

2026-07-05

NVD

CVE-2026-45928

EUVD

EUVD-2026-32394

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
linux	linux_kernel	From 6.13 (inc) to 6.18.14 (exc)
linux	linux_kernel	From 6.19 (inc) to 6.19.4 (exc)
linux	linux_kernel	From 6.8 (inc) to 6.12.75 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-401	The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's media component, specifically in the chips-media wave5 driver. When opening a video processing unit (VPU) encoder or decoder instance, memory is allocated for the instance. However, if a subsequent memory allocation for codec information fails, the previously allocated memory for the instance is not freed, causing a memory leak.

The issue occurs in the functions wave5_vpu_open_enc() and wave5_vpu_open_dec(), where kzalloc() is used to allocate memory for the VPU instance. If the allocation for inst->codec_info fails, the functions return an error (-ENOMEM) without freeing the initial allocation, leading to a leak.

The fix involves calling kfree() on the allocated instance in the error path to properly release the memory and prevent the leak.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to a memory leak in the Linux kernel when using the wave5 media driver. Over time, repeated failures in codec_info allocation could cause the system to consume more memory than necessary, potentially leading to degraded system performance or instability.

While it does not directly cause code execution or data corruption, the memory leak could affect system reliability, especially in environments where the affected driver is heavily used.

Mitigation Strategies

The vulnerability is a memory leak in the Linux kernel's chips-media wave5 codec driver caused by failure to free allocated memory on codec_info allocation failure.

To mitigate this vulnerability, update your Linux kernel to a version that includes the fix where kfree() is called on the instance in the error path to properly release memory.

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