WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get

Status: moderation: reported on 2026/07/16 20:30
Subsystems: media
Labels: prio:high
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+df25983d45d7c6891ca9@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 16d, last: 1d10h
✨ AI Jobs (4)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision Error
c5b84e43 assessment-security DenialOfService: ✅ Exploitable: ✅ FilesystemTrigger: ❌ NetworkTrigger: ❌ PeripheralTrigger: ✅ RemoteTrigger: ❌ Unprivileged: ❌ UserNamespace: ❌ VMGuestTrigger: ❌ VMHostTrigger: ❌ WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get 2026/07/23 00:43 2026/07/23 00:43 2026/07/23 01:13 44995053

			
		
4e5ddb8c assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get 2026/07/19 00:02 2026/07/19 00:02 2026/07/19 00:22 72524a66
failed to run ["make" "KERNELVERSION=syzkaller" "KERNELRELEASE=syzkaller" "LOCALVERSION=-syzkaller" "-j" "32" "ARCH=arm64" "CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-" "CC=ccache clang" "LD=ld.lld" "O=/app/work...
truncated to first 200 bytes; open job for full error
c7ab9d9c assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get 2026/07/16 00:56 2026/07/16 00:56 2026/07/16 01:08 10d97020
failed to run ["make" "KERNELVERSION=syzkaller" "KERNELRELEASE=syzkaller" "LOCALVERSION=-syzkaller" "-j" "32" "ARCH=arm64" "CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-" "CC=ccache clang" "LD=ld.lld" "O=/app/work...
truncated to first 200 bytes; open job for full error
4e147df3 assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get 2026/07/14 00:21 2026/07/14 00:21 2026/07/14 00:43 2130f682
failed to run ["make" "KERNELVERSION=syzkaller" "KERNELRELEASE=syzkaller" "LOCALVERSION=-syzkaller" "-j" "32" "ARCH=arm64" "CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-" "CC=ccache clang" "LD=ld.lld" "O=/app/work...
truncated to first 200 bytes; open job for full error

Sample crash report:
------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
WARNING: lib/refcount.c:25 at refcount_warn_saturate+0x134/0x1f8 lib/refcount.c:25, CPU#0: syz.1.570/7356
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7356 Comm: syz.1.570 Tainted: G             L      syzkaller #0 PREEMPT 
Tainted: [L]=SOFTLOCKUP
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/02/2026
pstate: 63400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
pc : refcount_warn_saturate+0x134/0x1f8 lib/refcount.c:25
lr : refcount_warn_saturate+0x134/0x1f8 lib/refcount.c:25
sp : ffff800092a27640
x29: ffff800092a27640 x28: dfff800000000000 x27: 1fffe00022a6d041
x26: dfff800000000000 x25: ffff700012544edc x24: dfff800000000000
x23: ffff80008744d368 x22: ffff0000d655fa10 x21: ffff0000cbac8000
x20: ffff0000cbac8010 x19: ffff80008a158000 x18: 0000000000000000
x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000
x14: 00000000ffff8000 x13: 0000000000000001 x12: 0000000000000000
x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000080000 x9 : 21551086d736d700
x8 : 21551086d736d700 x7 : ffff80008048de94 x6 : 0000000000000000
x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : ffff8000802f8054
x2 : 0000000100000000 x1 : ffff0000c7edd7c0 x0 : 0000000000000001
Call trace:
 refcount_warn_saturate+0x134/0x1f8 lib/refcount.c:25 (P)
 __refcount_add include/linux/refcount.h:-1 [inline]
 __refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:366 [inline]
 refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:383 [inline]
 kref_get include/linux/kref.h:45 [inline]
 dvb_device_get+0x9c/0xc0 drivers/media/dvb-core/dvbdev.c:621
 dvb_device_open+0x100/0x254 drivers/media/dvb-core/dvbdev.c:106
 chrdev_open+0x398/0x3e8 fs/char_dev.c:411
 do_dentry_open+0x5c4/0xfc0 fs/open.c:947
 vfs_open+0x44/0x2dc fs/open.c:1052
 do_open fs/namei.c:4700 [inline]
 path_openat+0x21fc/0x2a60 fs/namei.c:4863
 do_file_open+0x1c8/0x2e8 fs/namei.c:4892
 do_sys_openat2+0x114/0x1e8 fs/open.c:1368
 do_sys_open+0xb0/0xe0 fs/open.c:1374
 __do_sys_openat fs/open.c:1390 [inline]
 __se_sys_openat fs/open.c:1385 [inline]
 __arm64_sys_openat+0xa0/0xbc fs/open.c:1385
 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline]
 invoke_syscall+0x98/0x244 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49
 el0_svc_common+0xec/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:121
 do_el0_svc+0x4c/0x5c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:140
 el0_svc+0x64/0x260 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:736
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x48/0x148 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:755
 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:594
irq event stamp: 300
hardirqs last  enabled at (299): [<ffff8000868e3f4c>] irqentry_exit_to_kernel_mode_after_preempt include/linux/irq-entry-common.h:507 [inline]
hardirqs last  enabled at (299): [<ffff8000868e3f4c>] arm64_exit_to_kernel_mode+0x80/0x94 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:62
hardirqs last disabled at (300): [<ffff8000868dfe78>] el1_brk64+0x20/0x54 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:425
softirqs last  enabled at (270): [<ffff800080139980>] local_bh_enable include/linux/bottom_half.h:33 [inline]
softirqs last  enabled at (270): [<ffff800080139980>] put_cpu_fpsimd_context arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c:251 [inline]
softirqs last  enabled at (270): [<ffff800080139980>] do_sve_acc+0x32c/0x4b8 arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c:1349
softirqs last disabled at (268): [<ffff800080139760>] local_bh_disable include/linux/bottom_half.h:20 [inline]
softirqs last disabled at (268): [<ffff800080139760>] get_cpu_fpsimd_context arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c:234 [inline]
softirqs last disabled at (268): [<ffff800080139760>] do_sve_acc+0x10c/0x4b8 arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c:1325
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Internal error: SP/PC alignment exception: 000000008a000000 [#1]  SMP
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7356 Comm: syz.1.570 Tainted: G        W    L      syzkaller #0 PREEMPT 
Tainted: [W]=WARN, [L]=SOFTLOCKUP
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/02/2026
pstate: 83400805 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=-c)
pc : 0x1
lr : vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
lr : __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline]
lr : __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline]
lr : __arm64_sys_ioctl+0x14c/0x1c4 fs/ioctl.c:583
sp : ffff800092a27d30
x29: ffff800092a27d30 x28: ffff0000c7edd7c0 x27: 0000000000000005
x26: 1fffe00018fdbaf8 x25: dfff800000000000 x24: 00000000fffffdfd
x23: 0000000000000001 x22: 0000000020000100 x21: 0000000040106f52
x20: ffff0001153681c0 x19: ffff0001153681c1 x18: 0000000000000000
x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000
x14: 00000000ffff8000 x13: 0000000000000005 x12: 0000000000000000
x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000080000 x9 : 0000000000000b82
x8 : ffff80009b9c5000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 000000000000003f
x5 : 0000000000000040 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : ffff800080ce8388
x2 : 0000000020000100 x1 : 0000000040106f52 x0 : ffff0001153681c0
Call trace:
 0x1 (P)
 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline]
 invoke_syscall+0x98/0x244 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49
 el0_svc_common+0xec/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:121
 do_el0_svc+0x4c/0x5c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:140
 el0_svc+0x64/0x260 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:736
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x48/0x148 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:755
 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:594
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Crashes (3):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/07/28 10:01 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm64/linux.git for-kernelci 365f9c7a6b81 45ae1df4 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-gce-arm64 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get
2026/07/26 01:19 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm64/linux.git for-kernelci b66b0005b6ce 492bab15 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-gce-arm64 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get
2026/07/12 20:22 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm64/linux.git for-kernelci a52d6c7160f7 d78ea535 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-gce-arm64 WARNING: refcount bug in dvb_device_get
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.