CVE-2025-71192 ALSA: ac97: fix a double free in snd_ac97_controller_register()
A double free vulnerability in the Linux kernel ALSA AC97 driver allows attackers to cause denial of service or potentially execute code.
- 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-2025-71192?
CVE-2025-71192 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 4 Feb 2026. 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: ac97: fix a double free in snd_ac97_controller_register()
If ac97_add_adapter() fails, put_device() is the correct way to drop the device reference. kfree() is not required. Add kfree() if idr_alloc() fails and in ac97_adapter_release() to do the cleanup.
Found by code review.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71192?
How do I fix CVE-2025-71192?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2025-71192 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71192 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71192, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71192, GHSA-629p-5p7m-6c4r, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71192, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71192, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71192 and 1 more.