Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2026-74388
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 (?:?)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.002 (5.5th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 5.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2, 7.2
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-74388?
- CVE-2026-74388 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-08-15.
- How severe is CVE-2026-74388?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.