[PATCH] media: usbtv: fix use-after-free and lockdep panic on unbind
From: Svyatoslav Nikolenko
Date: Sun Sep 27 2026 - 14:09:31 EST
When a usbtv device is unplugged or unbound, a lockdep panic and
use-after-free occurs in the driver core.
The sequence of events leading to the crash is:
1. device_release_driver_internal() acquires dev->mutex.
2. usbtv_disconnect() is called, which in turn calls usbtv_video_free().
3. usbtv_video_free() prematurely calls v4l2_device_disconnect() and
v4l2_device_put().
4. This drops the final reference on the parent USB device (intf->dev),
triggering synchronous device deletion while the USB core is still
holding dev->mutex.
5. When the core attempts to unlock dev->mutex, it operates on freed
memory, causing a lockdep panic.
Furthermore, usbtv_disconnect() continues to access usbtv->udev after
usbtv_video_free() returns, leading to a direct use-after-free.
Fix this by removing the manual v4l2_device_disconnect() and
v4l2_device_put() calls from usbtv_video_free(). This allows
usbtv_video_free() to safely unregister the video node without destroying
the underlying structures. The final v4l2_device_put() at the end of
usbtv_disconnect() will now correctly trigger usbtv_release()
asynchronously, safely dropping the parent device reference only after all
system locks are released.
As a result of this cleanup, the dummy v4l2_device_get() previously used
to prevent premature deletion in the usbtv_probe() error path is no longer
needed and has been removed.
Fixes: a3550ea665ac ("[media] usbtv: split core and video implementation")
Reported-by: syzbot+ed3ed4f52d1fb6a7367d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=ed3ed4f52d1fb6a7367d
Tested-by: syzbot+ed3ed4f52d1fb6a7367d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Svyatoslav Nikolenko <nsvatoslav515@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-core.c | 3 ---
drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-video.c | 3 ---
2 files changed, 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-core.c b/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-core.c
index 4f10f6613bc4..8a68bc0aa884 100644
--- a/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-core.c
+++ b/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-core.c
@@ -112,9 +112,6 @@ static int usbtv_probe(struct usb_interface *intf,
return 0;
usbtv_audio_fail:
- /* we must not free at this point */
- v4l2_device_get(&usbtv->v4l2_dev);
- /* this will undo the v4l2_device_get() */
usbtv_video_free(usbtv);
usbtv_video_fail:
diff --git a/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-video.c b/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-video.c
index 92bc7a2509c3..9e02038c3ff7 100644
--- a/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-video.c
+++ b/drivers/media/usb/usbtv/usbtv-video.c
@@ -964,7 +964,4 @@ int usbtv_video_init(struct usbtv *usbtv)
void usbtv_video_free(struct usbtv *usbtv)
{
vb2_video_unregister_device(&usbtv->vdev);
- v4l2_device_disconnect(&usbtv->v4l2_dev);
-
- v4l2_device_put(&usbtv->v4l2_dev);
}
--
2.47.3