CVE-2026-89871

/// Technical description

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

media: video-i2c: fix kthread error pointer left in kthread_vid_cap on failure

kthread_run() returns an ERR_PTR on failure, not NULL.

When start_streaming() fails, data->kthread_vid_cap is left holding

this error pointer instead of being cleared.

This causes two subsequent bugs:

1. A future call to start_streaming() sees a non-NULL kthread_vid_cap

and returns 0 (success) immediately, without actually starting the

capture thread.

2. A call to stop_streaming() checks 'kthread_vid_cap == NULL' which

is false for an error pointer, and proceeds to call kthread_stop()

on the error pointer, leading to a kernel crash.

Fix this by resetting kthread_vid_cap to NULL on failure before

jumping to the error path.

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// References