CVE-2026-90198

About vulnerability

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

ALSA: core: Fix use-after-free in snd_card_do_free()

A use-after-free was detected in snd_card_do_free() when a sound card managed by devres is unbound while a user-space application still holds an open file descriptor.

For managed cards, the memory is allocated using devres_alloc(), and its release function is set to __snd_card_release(), which calls snd_card_free(). When the device is unbound, the unbind thread calls snd_card_free(), which drops a reference to the card’s device. If the user thread still has an open file descriptor, the reference count does not reach zero, and the unbind thread blocks on wait_for_completion(&released).

When the user thread closes the file descriptor, it drops the final reference, invoking the device release callback release_card_device(), which calls snd_card_do_free(). snd_card_do_free() performs cleanup and calls complete(card->release_completion). This wakes up the unbind thread, which returns from snd_card_free() and __snd_card_release(). The devres core then immediately frees the memory block containing the snd_card structure.

Meanwhile, the user thread continues execution in snd_card_do_free() and evaluates if (!card->managed). It reads the managed boolean from the snd_card structure that was just freed by the unbind thread, triggering a KASAN use-after-free.

Fix this by caching the value of card->managed in a local variable before calling complete(). This ensures that the card pointer is not dereferenced after the unbind thread has been woken up and potentially freed the card.

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in snd_card_do_free sound/core/init.c:604 [inline] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in release_card_device+0x1ab/0x1b0 sound/core/init.c:153 Read of size 1 at addr ffff8881912ec909 by task syz-executor130/5857

Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x150 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description+0x55/0x1e0 mm/kasan/report.c:378 print_report+0x58/0x70 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0x117/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:595 snd_card_do_free sound/core/init.c:604 [inline] release_card_device+0x1ab/0x1b0 sound/core/init.c:153 device_release+0xc4/0x1f0 drivers/base/core.c:-1 kobject_cleanup lib/kobject.c:689 [inline] kobject_release lib/kobject.c:720 [inline] kref_put include/linux/kref.h:65 [inline] kobject_put+0x222/0x550 lib/kobject.c:737 snd_card_file_remove+0x331/0x390 sound/core/init.c:1125 snd_pcm_release+0x12c/0x160 sound/core/pcm_native.c:2986 __fput+0x418/0xa50 fs/file_table.c:512 fput_close_sync+0x11f/0x240 fs/file_table.c:617 __do_sys_close fs/open.c:1511 [inline] __se_sys_close fs/open.c:1496 [inline] __x64_sys_close+0x7e/0x110 fs/open.c:1496 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x174/0x580 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f </TASK>

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU

Affected packages:

kernel @ 4.18.0 (+5 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.