CVE-2023-54072 ALSA: pcm: Fix potential data race at PCM memory allocation helpers
A race condition in Linux kernel ALSA PCM memory allocation allows local users to exceed memory limits, potentially causing denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-54072?
CVE-2023-54072 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ALSA: pcm: Fix potential data race at PCM memory allocation helpers
The PCM memory allocation helpers have a sanity check against too many buffer allocations. However, the check is performed without a proper lock and the allocation isn't serialized; this allows user to allocate more memories than predefined max size.
Practically seen, this isn't really a big problem, as it's more or less some "soft limit" as a sanity check, and it's not possible to allocate unlimitedly. But it's still better to address this for more consistent behavior.
The patch covers the size check in do_alloc_pages() with the card->memory_mutex, and increases the allocated size there for preventing the further overflow. When the actual allocation fails, the size is decreased accordingly.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54072?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54072?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54072 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54072 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54072, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54072, GHSA-xx23-73hr-9p64, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54072.