CVE-2026-53192 ALSA: timer: Fix UAF at snd_timer_user_params()
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel ALSA timer allows local attackers to achieve code execution or privilege escalation via a race condition.
- 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-2026-53192?
CVE-2026-53192 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jun 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: timer: Fix UAF at snd_timer_user_params()
At releasing a timer object, e.g. when a userspace timer (CONFIG_SND_UTIMER) gets closed and snd_timer_free() is called, it tries to detach the timer instances and release the resources. However, it's still possible that other in-flight tasks are holding the timer instance where the to-be-deleted timer object is associated, and this may lead to racy accesses.
Fortunately, most of ioctls dealing with the timer instance list already have the protection with register_mutex, and this also avoids such races. But, SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_PARAMS isn't protected, hence the concurrent ioctl may lead to use-after-free.
This patch just adds the guard with register_mutex to protect snd_timer_user_params() for covering the code path as a quick workaround. It's no hot-path but rather a rarely issued ioctl, so the performance penalty doesn't matter.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53192?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-53192?
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-2026-53192 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53192 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-90660, BELL-CVE-2026-53192, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53192, GHSA-jmf6-3v74-7x28, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53192, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53192 and 3 more.