ALSA: seq: oss: Fix UAF at handling events with embedded SysEx data
CVE-2026-74388 · published 15 Aug 2026
How serious is it
- Severity: high, CVSS score 7.8 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2026-74388?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to < bc963e193b314f1441082e8b1ffe15eb255d0a44, 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to < e96824274239ae4cd2f7b712644441cdc72c81a3, 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to < 6dc781778b595be94c31395b2cb167f65145d91f, 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to < 7aad70cabd8f34cf11a9593fcd3f2ac3f5496943
- Linux Linux: 2.6.12
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex that asks it to check whether you run this product.
- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ALSA: seq: oss: Fix UAF at handling events with embedded SysEx data
The OSS sequencer processes the input MIDI bytes into a sequencer
event to be dispatched later (in snd_seq_oss_midi_putc() called from
snd_seq_oss_process_event()). When it's a SysEx data, the event
record contains data.ext.ptr pointer to the original SysEx bytes, and
the referred data is copied into the pool afterwards at dispatching.
The problem is that, if the sequencer port gets closed concurrently
before the dispatch, the OSS sequencer core also releases the
resources (in snd_seq_oss_midi_check_exit_port()), while the pending
event may hold a stale pointer, eventually leading to a UAF at a later
dispatch.
Fortunately, there is already a refcounting mechanism (snd_use_lock_t)
for the OSS MIDI device access, and for addressing the issue above, we
just need to extend the refcount until the event gets dispatched.
This patch extends snd_seq_oss_process_event() to give back the
refcount object, which is in turn released after calling the sequencer
dispatcher with the given event in the caller side.
According to the original report, KASAN report as below:
KASAN slab-use-after-free in snd_seq_event_dup+0x40c/0x470
RIP: 0033:0x7f2cb66a6340
Read of size 6
Call trace:
dump_stack_lvl+0x73/0xb0 (?:?)
print_report+0xd1/0x650 (?:?)
srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 (?:?)
__virt_addr_valid+0x1a7/0x340 (?:?)
kasan_complete_mode_report_info+0x64/0x200 (?:?)
kasan_report+0xf7/0x130 (?:?)
snd_seq_event_dup+0x40c/0x470 (?:?)
kasan_check_range+0x10c/0x1c0 (?:?)
__asan_memcpy+0x27/0x70 (?:?)
snd_seq_event_dup+0x9/0x470 (?:?)
snd_seq_client_enqueue_event+0x139/0x240 (?:?)
_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x4b/0x60 (?:?)
snd_seq_kernel_client_enqueue+0x102/0x120 (?:?)
snd_seq_oss_write+0x416/0x4e0 (?:?)
apparmor_file_permission+0x20/0x30 (?:?)
odev_write+0x3b/0x60 (?:?)
vfs_write+0x1ce/0x850 (?:?)
lock_release+0xc8/0x2a0 (?:?)
__kasan_check_write+0x18/0x20 (?:?)
__mutex_unlock_slowpath+0x129/0x510 (?:?)
ksys_write+0xe1/0x180 (?:?)
mutex_unlock+0x16/0x20 (?:?)
odev_ioctl+0x65/0xc0 (?:?)
__x64_sys_write+0x46/0x60 (?:?)
x64_sys_call+0x7d/0x20d0 (?:?)
do_syscall_64+0xc1/0x360 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:87)
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f (?:?)
Check your whole app
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References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc963e193b314f1441082e8b1ffe15eb255d0a44
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e96824274239ae4cd2f7b712644441cdc72c81a3
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/6dc781778b595be94c31395b2cb167f65145d91f
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7aad70cabd8f34cf11a9593fcd3f2ac3f5496943
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c349b4f2a603202fb8c363bd2774a22ac2fddf3
Merged from CVE List. Last updated 25 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON