CVE-2026-64490 ALSA: virtio: Validate control metadata from the device
A malicious or buggy virtio-sound device can trigger out-of-bounds memory access in the Linux kernel, potentially leading to code execution or system crashes.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-64490?
CVE-2026-64490 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Jul 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: virtio: Validate control metadata from the device
virtio-snd control handling trusts the device-provided control type and value count returned by the device.
That metadata is then used directly to index g_v2a_type_map[] in virtsnd_kctl_info(), and to size loops and memcpy() operations in virtsnd_kctl_get() and virtsnd_kctl_put() against fixed-size virtio_snd_ctl_value and snd_ctl_elem_value arrays.
A buggy or malicious device can therefore trigger out-of-bounds access by advertising an invalid control type or an oversized value count.
Validate control type and count once in virtsnd_kctl_parse_cfg(), before querying enumerated items or exposing the control to ALSA.
Weakness: CWE-125
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-64490?
How do I fix CVE-2026-64490?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-64490 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64490 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-64490, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64490, GHSA-4qj6-j88p-jqg9, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-64490, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64490.