CVE-2025-71140: media: mediatek: vcodec: Use spinlock for context list protection lock

Published Jan 14, 2026
·
Updated

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

media: mediatek: vcodec: Use spinlock for context list protection lock

Previously a mutex was added to protect the encoder and decoder context lists from unexpected changes originating from the SCP IP block, causing the context pointer to go invalid, resulting in a NULL pointer dereference in the IPI handler.

Turns out on the MT8173, the VPU IPI handler is called from hard IRQ context. This causes a big warning from the scheduler. This was first reported downstream on the ChromeOS kernels, but is also reproducible on mainline using Fluster with the FFmpeg v4l2m2m decoders. Even though the actual capture format is not supported, the affected code paths are triggered.

Since this lock just protects the context list and operations on it are very fast, it should be OK to switch to a spinlock.

Affected Software

2 affected componentsFixes available
linux/kernel
debian/linux
6.1.176-16.1.190-16.12.107-16.12.115-27.2.12-17.2.15-1

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.1.176-1Fixed in 6.1.190-1Fixed in 6.12.107-1Fixed in 6.12.113-1Fixed in 7.2.12-1Fixed in 7.2.13-1

Event History

Jan 14, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:07 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:07 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via NVD·03:16 PM
Description

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2025-71140?

CVE-2025-71140 is rated as a medium severity vulnerability due to its potential impact on the context list protection mechanism in the Linux kernel.

2

How do I fix CVE-2025-71140?

To fix CVE-2025-71140, update your Linux kernel to the latest version where the vulnerability has been addressed.

3

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2025-71140?

CVE-2025-71140 is a vulnerability related to improper use of locking mechanisms in the MediaTek vcodec component of the Linux kernel.

4

Who is affected by CVE-2025-71140?

Users of the Linux kernel employing MediaTek vcodec functionalities may be affected by CVE-2025-71140.

5

What impact does CVE-2025-71140 have on Linux systems?

The impact of CVE-2025-71140 could potentially lead to data corruption or crashes due to improper locking of encoder and decoder context lists.

Contact

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