# CVE-2026-72446: ALSA: usb-audio: qcom: reject stream disable with no active interface

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash or memory corruption by sending a malformed USB audio stream disable request via AF_QIPCRTR.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 15 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-72446, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72446, GHSA-xg4f-mwxf-g67f, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72446

## What is CVE-2026-72446?

CVE-2026-72446 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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: qcom: reject stream disable with no active interface

handle_uaudio_stream_req() resolves an interface index with
info_idx_from_ifnum(), which returns -EINVAL when no interface matches.
The enable branch and the response: cleanup label both guard against a
negative index, but the disable branch does not: it forms
info = &uadev[pcm_card_num].info[info_idx] and dereferences it.

uadev[].info is a pointer allocated only when a stream is first enabled,
so a negative info_idx on the disable path is unsafe in two ways:

 - If the card was never enabled, .info is NULL and &info[-EINVAL] is a
   wild pointer; reading info->data_ep_pipe faults (kernel oops).

 - If the card was enabled at least once (.info allocated) and the
   disable names an interface that does not match, &info[-EINVAL] points
   before the allocation; info->data_ep_pipe / info->sync_ep_pipe are an
   out-of-bounds slab read and, when non-zero, an out-of-bounds 4-byte
   write (both pipe fields are cleared to 0). That is memory corruption,
   not just a NULL dereference.

The request is reachable from unprivileged local userspace over
AF_QIPCRTR. Reject a disable request with no resolved interface, matching
the guard the enable path already has.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72446?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-72446?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-72446 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72446 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-72446 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-72446 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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-2026-72446 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-72446/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72446/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72446
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72446
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-72446

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72446/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.