# CVE-2026-98836: ALSA: line6: reject oversized playback packets

> A malicious USB device can trigger a buffer overflow in the ALSA line6 driver, potentially leading to kernel code execution or system crash.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-108729, BELL-CVE-2026-98836, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98836, GHSA-xfm3-rq9f-jfc7, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98836

## What is CVE-2026-98836?

CVE-2026-98836 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 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: line6: reject oversized playback packets

Each playback URB is handed a slice of out.buffer that is exactly
LINE6_ISO_PACKETS * max_packet_size_out bytes, sized from the OUT
endpoint, but the number of bytes written into that slice is never
compared against it.

submit_audio_out_urb() takes the frame count from prev_fsize, which
audio_in_callback() derived from the *IN* endpoint's received packet
length, and rescales it with the playback frame size; when prev_fsize is
still zero it synthesizes a length from the sample rate instead.  On a
device declaring a large IN wMaxPacketSize and a small OUT
wMaxPacketSize, the resulting memcpy(), or the memset() when the
playback stream is idle, runs past its slice and, as the reproducer
below shows, beyond the allocation.

usb_submit_urb() is not a backstop.  max_packet_size_out comes from
usb_maxpacket(), which returns only the low 11 bits of wMaxPacketSize,
while USB core validates a high-speed isochronous length against that
base scaled by usb_endpoint_maxp_mult().  A length of up to three times
the allocated slice is therefore accepted, and even a rejected URB is
only rejected after the write.

Reject a packet that does not fit the slice the driver allocated for it.
Clamping it instead would silently shorten the capture-derived rate
feedback and desynchronize the two streams.

  BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in submit_audio_out_urb (sound/usb/line6/playback.c:229)
  Write of size 1024 at addr ffff888100bbd400 by task kworker/1:2/5002
  Workqueue: events line6_startup_work
  Call Trace:
   __asan_memcpy (mm/kasan/shadow.c:106)
   submit_audio_out_urb (sound/usb/line6/playback.c:229)
   line6_submit_audio_out_all_urbs (sound/usb/line6/playback.c:291)
   line6_stream_start (sound/usb/line6/pcm.c:194)
   line6_pcm_acquire (sound/usb/line6/pcm.c:337)
   line6_startup_work (sound/usb/line6/driver.c:728)
   process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3396)
   worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3479 kernel/workqueue.c:3560)
   kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436)
   ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158)
   ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245)

  The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888100bbd400
   which belongs to the cache kmalloc-256 of size 256
  The buggy address is located 0 bytes inside of
   allocated 256-byte region [ffff888100bbd400, ffff888100bbd500)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98836?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98836?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98836 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98836 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98836 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98836 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 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-2026-98836 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-2026-98836/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98836/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98836
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98836
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98836

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98836/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.