VYPR
Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published Oct 20, 2025· Updated Apr 18, 2026

CVE-2025-40016

CVE-2025-40016

Description

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

media: uvcvideo: Mark invalid entities with id UVC_INVALID_ENTITY_ID

Per UVC 1.1+ specification 3.7.2, units and terminals must have a non-zero unique ID.

Each Unit and Terminal within the video function is assigned a unique
identification number, the Unit ID (UID) or Terminal ID (TID), contained in
the bUnitID or bTerminalID field of the descriptor. The value 0x00 is
reserved for undefined ID,

If we add a new entity with id 0 or a duplicated ID, it will be marked as UVC_INVALID_ENTITY_ID.

In a previous attempt commit 3dd075fe8ebb ("media: uvcvideo: Require entities to have a non-zero unique ID"), we ignored all the invalid units, this broke a lot of non-compatible cameras. Hopefully we are more lucky this time.

This also prevents some syzkaller reproducers from triggering warnings due to a chain of entities referring to themselves. In one particular case, an Output Unit is connected to an Input Unit, both with the same ID of 1. But when looking up for the source ID of the Output Unit, that same entity is found instead of the input entity, which leads to such warnings.

In another case, a backward chain was considered finished as the source ID was 0. Later on, that entity was found, but its pads were not valid.

Here is a sample stack trace for one of those cases.

[ 20.650953] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using dummy_hcd [ 20.830206] usb 1-1: Using ep0 maxpacket: 8 [ 20.833501] usb 1-1: config 0 descriptor?? [ 21.038518] usb 1-1: string descriptor 0 read error: -71 [ 21.038893] usb 1-1: Found UVC 0.00 device (2833:0201) [ 21.039299] uvcvideo 1-1:0.0: Entity type for entity Output 1 was not initialized! [ 21.041583] uvcvideo 1-1:0.0: Entity type for entity Input 1 was not initialized! [ 21.042218] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 21.042536] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 9 at drivers/media/mc/mc-entity.c:1147 media_create_pad_link+0x2c4/0x2e0 [ 21.043195] Modules linked in: [ 21.043535] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 9 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 6.11.0-rc7-00030-g3480e43aeccf #444 [ 21.044101] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 [ 21.044639] Workqueue: usb_hub_wq hub_event [ 21.045100] RIP: 0010:media_create_pad_link+0x2c4/0x2e0 [ 21.045508] Code: fe e8 20 01 00 00 b8 f4 ff ff ff 48 83 c4 30 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d c3 cc cc cc cc 0f 0b eb e9 0f 0b eb 0a 0f 0b eb 06 <0f> 0b eb 02 0f 0b b8 ea ff ff ff eb d4 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 [ 21.046801] RSP: 0018:ffffc9000004b318 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 21.047227] RAX: ffff888004e5d458 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffff818fccf1 [ 21.047719] RDX: 000000000000007b RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff888004313290 [ 21.048241] RBP: ffff888004313290 R08: 0001ffffffffffff R09: 0000000000000000 [ 21.048701] R10: 0000000000000013 R11: 0001888004313290 R12: 0000000000000003 [ 21.049138] R13: ffff888004313080 R14: ffff888004313080 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 21.049648] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88803ec00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 21.050271] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 21.050688] CR2: 0000592cc27635b0 CR3: 000000000431c000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0 [ 21.051136] PKRU: 55555554 [ 21.051331] Call Trace: [ 21.051480] [ 21.051611] ? __warn+0xc4/0x210 [ 21.051861] ? media_create_pad_link+0x2c4/0x2e0 [ 21.052252] ? report_bug+0x11b/0x1a0 [ 21.052540] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0x31/0x40 [ 21.052901] ? handle_bug+0x3d/0x70 [ 21.053197] ? exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x50 [ 21.053511] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 [ 21.053924] ? media_create_pad_link+0x91/0x2e0 [ 21.054364] ? media_create_pad_link+0x2c4/0x2e0 [ 21.054834] ? media_create_pad_link+0x91/0x2e0 [ 21.055131] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x1e/0x40 [ 21.055441] ? __v4l2_device_register_subdev+0x202/0x210 [ 21.055837] uvc_mc_register_entities+0x358/0x400 [ 21.056144] uvc_register_chains+0x1 ---truncated---

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

In the Linux kernel's UVC video driver, entities with zero or duplicate IDs are now marked invalid to prevent kernel warnings and potential crashes from malformed USB descriptors.

Vulnerability

Overview

In the Linux kernel's UVC video driver (drivers/media/usb/uvc), a vulnerability existed where malformed USB device descriptors could cause a kernel warning or panic. According to the UVC 1.1+ specification, each unit and terminal must have a non-zero unique ID [1]. However, the driver previously did not properly validate entity IDs, allowing entities with ID 0 or duplicate IDs to be added normally. This violated the specification and could lead to internal inconsistencies.

Exploitation

Mechanism

An attacker with physical access to the system could plug in a malicious USB device that advertises UVC entities with ID 0 or with duplicate IDs. When the driver processes such descriptors, it could create a chain of entities where an Output Unit incorrectly references itself (both input and output having the same ID) or where a back-reference chain finishes prematurely (source ID 0) but the entity is later found without valid pads. This triggers a warning in the media controller's media_create_pad_link function [1]. The stack trace shows a kernel warning being issued when the driver tries to create a link for entities with uninitialized types.

Impact

If exploited, this issue could cause a denial of service by triggering a kernel warning or potentially a crash (oops) via the WARN_ON in the media controller code [1]. The vulnerability is limited to local exploitation via crafted USB devices, requiring an attacker to have physical access or a way to simulate a malicious USB device (e.g., through a compromised USB hub or pawning a connected device).

Mitigation

The fix, which is a stable kernel commit, ensures that any entity with an ID of 0 or a duplicate ID is marked with the UVC_INVALID_ENTITY_ID flag instead of being added normally or outright rejected [1]. This approach avoids breaking non-compliant cameras (as a previous attempt did) while still preventing the driver from following invalid chains that could lead to warnings. The patch has been applied to the stable kernel tree. Users should update their kernel to the latest stable version containing this commit.

AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected products

1

Patches

5

Vulnerability mechanics

Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

7

News mentions

0

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