CVE-2026-98264
Description
A flaw was found in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) virtio sound driver in the Linux kernel. During device removal or system suspend operations, virtual queues are deleted before the virtual device is reset, allowing the device to access queue memory buffers after they have been freed. An attacker could exploit this improper cleanup sequence to trigger a use-after-free condition, potentially leading to kernel memory corruption or a Denial of Service (DoS) through a system crash.
Statement
ALSA virtio sound can release vring backing memory while the virtio device still has enabled queues because del_vqs does not guarantee that the device is quiesced. The device may continue DMA access after the vring memory is freed, creating a use-after-free condition that can crash the guest kernel or corrupt memory if the released pages are reused. For the CVSS the PR:N value is used in the paranoid score because a malicious or faulty virtio backend can control queue activity without an account or privileges inside the guest. The attack is adjacent to the guest through the virtio device boundary and is not directly network reachable. Impact is at least denial of service and may include confidentiality and integrity impact because DMA can access freed and potentially reallocated kernel memory. This risk is most relevant for untrusted backends, isolated device processes, passthrough devices, or confidential guest threat models.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.1 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
The use of previously freed memory may corrupt valid data, if the memory area in question has been allocated and used properly elsewhere.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If chunk consolidation occurs after the use of previously freed data, the process may crash when invalid data is used as chunk information.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
Read operations on freed memory can sometimes leak sensitive information instead of causing a crash
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If malicious data is entered before chunk consolidation can take place, it may be possible to take advantage of a write-what-where primitive to execute arbitrary code. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.
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