CVE-2026-98265 ALSA: usb-audio: Clamp implicit feedback packet count to URB capacity
A malicious USB device can trigger a slab-out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel ALSA USB audio driver, potentially leading to code execution or system crash.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-98265?
CVE-2026-98265 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 6 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ALSA: usb-audio: Clamp implicit feedback packet count to URB capacity
data_ep_set_params() allocates each data URB for exactly u->packets isochronous frames, so urb->iso_frame_desc[] has u->packets slots and ctx->packets is the driver's only record of that limit. For an implicit feedback sink, snd_usb_queue_pending_output_urbs() overwrites it with the sync source's packet count, which is calculated independently from the capture endpoint's parameters. When that count is larger, prepare_playback_urb() and prepare_silent_urb() can write iso_frame_desc[] past the allocation; their existing bounds limit payload bytes, not the descriptor index.
The reproducer uses a high-speed UAC2 device declaring bInterval 1 for implicit feedback capture (8 packets) and bInterval 4 for playback (1 packet). On the first capture completion after the stream starts, it accesses seven descriptors spanning 112 bytes beyond the one-packet URB:
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in prepare_playback_urb (sound/usb/pcm.c:1560) Write of size 4 at addr ffff88801e696ad0 by task vhci_rx/178 prepare_playback_urb (sound/usb/pcm.c:1560) prepare_outbound_urb (sound/usb/endpoint.c:340) snd_usb_queue_pending_output_urbs (sound/usb/endpoint.c:501) snd_complete_urb (sound/usb/endpoint.c:1834) __usb_hcd_giveback_urb (drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1657) usb_hcd_giveback_urb (drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1741) vhci_rx_loop (drivers/usb/usbip/vhci_rx.c:107) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436) The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88801e696a00 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-256 of size 256 The buggy address is located 0 bytes to the right of allocated 208-byte region [ffff88801e696a00, ffff88801e696ad0)
Record the allocated packet count per endpoint and clamp both the adopted count and the packet-size copy to it. Fold the Format Type II delimiter into urb_packs before the allocation loop so the recorded limit matches every URB.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98265?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98265?
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-2026-98265 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98265 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-106476, BELL-CVE-2026-98265, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98265, GHSA-qghg-5w48-4c7c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98265.