CVE-2026-31576

media: hackrf: fix to not free memory after the device is registered in hackrf_probe()

published April 24, 2026

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
6.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

media: hackrf: fix to not free memory after the device is registered in hackrf_probe()

In hackrf driver, the following race condition occurs:

```

CPU0 CPU1

hackrf_probe()

kzalloc(); // alloc hackrf_dev

....

v4l2_device_register();

....

fd = sys_open("/path/to/dev"); // open hackrf fd

....

v4l2_device_unregister();

....

kfree(); // free hackrf_dev

....

sys_ioctl(fd, ...);

v4l2_ioctl();

video_is_registered() // UAF!!

....

sys_close(fd);

v4l2_release() // UAF!!

hackrf_video_release()

kfree(); // DFB!!

```

When a V4L2 or video device is unregistered, the device node is removed so

new open() calls are blocked.

However, file descriptors that are already open-and any in-flight I/O-do

not terminate immediately; they remain valid until the last reference is

dropped and the driver's release() is invoked.

Therefore, freeing device memory on the error path after hackrf_probe()

has registered dev it will lead to a race to use-after-free vuln, since

those already-open handles haven't been released yet.

And since release() free memory too, race to use-after-free and

double-free vuln occur.

To prevent this, if device is registered from probe(), it should be

modified to free memory only through release() rather than calling

kfree() directly.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00174 · 6.5th percentile
Published
2026-04-24T14:42Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 24 APR 14:42Z
    media: hackrf: fix to not free memory after the device is registered in hackrf_probe()
    cvelistv5