# CVE-2026-46018: ALSA: usb-audio: stop parsing UAC2 rates at MAX_NR_RATES

> A malformed USB audio device response causes the Linux kernel to loop indefinitely while holding a mutex, leading to a system hang or denial of service.

- **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:** 27 May 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-88740, BELL-CVE-2026-46018, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46018, GHSA-fgw2-9pf4-66rf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-46018, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-46018, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-46018, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-46018, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-46018

## What is CVE-2026-46018?

CVE-2026-46018 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 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: usb-audio: stop parsing UAC2 rates at MAX_NR_RATES

parse_uac2_sample_rate_range() caps the number of enumerated
rates at MAX_NR_RATES, but it only breaks out of the current
rate loop. A malformed UAC2 RANGE response with additional
triplets continues parsing the remaining triplets and repeatedly
prints "invalid uac2 rates" while probe still holds
register_mutex.

Stop the whole parse once the cap is reached and return the
number of rates collected so far.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46018?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-46018?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-46018 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46018 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-2026-46018 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-46018 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 2026. 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-2026-46018 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-2026-46018/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46018/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-46018
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46018
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-46018

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46018/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.