# CVE-2025-39765: ALSA: timer: fix ida_free call while not allocated

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service in the ALSA timer subsystem by causing a memory allocation failure during timer creation.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-39765, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39765, GHSA-3rvm-cw98-w4rx, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-39765, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39765

## What is CVE-2025-39765?

CVE-2025-39765 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 11 Sep 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: timer: fix ida_free call while not allocated

In the snd_utimer_create() function, if the kasprintf() function return
NULL, snd_utimer_put_id() will be called, finally use ida_free()
to free the unallocated id 0.

the syzkaller reported the following information:
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  ida_free called for id=0 which is not allocated.
  WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 1286 at lib/idr.c:592 ida_free+0x1fd/0x2f0 lib/idr.c:592
  Modules linked in:
  CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1286 Comm: syz-executor164 Not tainted 6.15.8 #3 PREEMPT(lazy)
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-4.fc42 04/01/2014
  RIP: 0010:ida_free+0x1fd/0x2f0 lib/idr.c:592
  Code: f8 fc 41 83 fc 3e 76 69 e8 70 b2 f8 (...)
  RSP: 0018:ffffc900007f79c8 EFLAGS: 00010282
  RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 1ffff920000fef3b RCX: ffffffff872176a5
  RDX: ffff88800369d200 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff88800369d200
  RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff87ba60a5 R09: 0000000000000000
  R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000
  R13: 0000000000000002 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
  FS:  00007f6f1abc1740(0000) GS:ffff8880d76a0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007f6f1ad7a784 CR3: 000000007a6e2000 CR4: 00000000000006f0
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   snd_utimer_put_id sound/core/timer.c:2043 [inline] [snd_timer]
   snd_utimer_create+0x59b/0x6a0 sound/core/timer.c:2184 [snd_timer]
   snd_utimer_ioctl_create sound/core/timer.c:2202 [inline] [snd_timer]
   __snd_timer_user_ioctl.isra.0+0x724/0x1340 sound/core/timer.c:2287 [snd_timer]
   snd_timer_user_ioctl+0x75/0xc0 sound/core/timer.c:2298 [snd_timer]
   vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
   __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:907 [inline]
   __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:893 [inline]
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x198/0x200 fs/ioctl.c:893
   do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
   do_syscall_64+0x7b/0x160 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
  [...]

The utimer->id should be set properly before the kasprintf() function,
ensures the snd_utimer_put_id() function will free the allocated id.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39765?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39765?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39765 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39765 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-39765 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39765 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 11 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39765 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39765/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39765/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39765
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39765
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39765

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39765/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.