Pixel format change broken for Elgato Cam Link 4K
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
linux (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Bionic |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Focal |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Groovy |
Won't Fix
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Hirsute |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Impish |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
[Impact]
The Elgato Cam Link 4K HDMI video capture card reports to support three
different pixel formats, where the first format depends on the connected
HDMI device.
```
$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
Type: Video Capture
[0]: 'NV12' (Y/CbCr 4:2:0)
Size: Discrete 3840x2160
Interval: Discrete 0.033s (29.970 fps)
[1]: 'NV12' (Y/CbCr 4:2:0)
Size: Discrete 3840x2160
Interval: Discrete 0.033s (29.970 fps)
[2]: 'YU12' (Planar YUV 4:2:0)
Size: Discrete 3840x2160
Interval: Discrete 0.033s (29.970 fps)
```
Changing the pixel format to anything besides the first pixel format
does not work:
```
$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --try-fmt-video pixelformat=YU12
Format Video Capture:
Width/Height : 3840/2160
Pixel Format : 'NV12' (Y/CbCr 4:2:0)
Field : None
Bytes per Line : 3840
Size Image : 12441600
Colorspace : sRGB
Transfer Function : Rec. 709
YCbCr/HSV Encoding: Rec. 709
Quantization : Default (maps to Limited Range)
Flags :
```
User space applications like VLC might show an error message on the
terminal in that case:
```
libv4l2: error set_fmt gave us a different result than try_fmt!
```
Depending on the error handling of the user space applications, they
might display a distorted video, because they use the wrong pixel format
for decoding the stream.
[Fix]
The Elgato Cam Link 4K responds to the USB video probe
VS_PROBE_
second byte contains bFormatIndex (instead of being the second byte of
bmHint). The first byte is always zero. The third byte is always 1.
The firmware bug was reported to Elgato on 2020-12-01 and it was
forwarded by the support team to the developers as feature request.
There is no firmware update available since then. The latest firmware
for Elgato Cam Link 4K as of 2021-03-23 has MCU 20.02.19 and FPGA 67.
Therefore correct the malformed data structure for this device. The
change was successfully tested with VLC, OBS, and Chromium using
different pixel formats (YUYV, NV12, YU12), resolutions (3840x2160,
1920x1080), and frame rates (29.970 and 59.940 fps).
[Test Case]
Connect an input device to the Cam Link 4K and try all three pixel formats with VLC:
vlc v4l2:///dev/video0 --v4l2-chroma=NV12
vlc v4l2:///dev/video0 --v4l2-chroma=YU12
[Other Info]
The fix was reviewed and accepted by the subsystem maintainer and will be included upstream: https:/
Attached a backported patch for Ubuntu. I successfully tested it with Linux 5.11 on Ubuntu 21.04 and Linux 5.8 on Ubuntu 20.10. It should work on older kernel versions as well.
CVE References
tags: | added: patch |
description: | updated |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Bionic): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Focal): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Groovy): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Hirsute): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Impish): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Bionic): | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Focal): | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Groovy): | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Hirsute): | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Thanks for your work!
Can you please follow [1] and send your patch?
[1] https:/ /wiki.ubuntu. com/Kernel/ Dev/StablePatch Format