CVE-2026-46048 PUBLISHED

ALSA: caiaq: fix usb_dev refcount leak on probe failure

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.05.2026 Published: 27.05.2026 Updated: 27.05.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ALSA: caiaq: fix usb_dev refcount leak on probe failure

create_card() takes a reference on the USB device with usb_get_dev() and stores the matching usb_put_dev() in card_free(), which is installed as the snd_card's ->private_free destructor.

However, ->private_free is only assigned near the end of init_card(), after several failure points (usb_set_interface(), EP type checks, usb_submit_urb(), the EP1_CMD_GET_DEVICE_INFO exchange, and its timeout). When any of those fail, init_card() returns an error to snd_probe(), which calls snd_card_free(card). Because ->private_free is still NULL, card_free() never runs, the usb_get_dev() reference is not dropped, and the struct usb_device leaks along with its descriptor allocations and device_private.

syzbot reproduces this with a malformed UAC3 device whose only valid altsetting is 0; init_card()'s usb_set_interface(usb_dev, 0, 1) call fails with -EIO and triggers the leak.

Move the ->private_free assignment into create_card(), immediately after usb_get_dev(), so that every error path reaching snd_card_free() balances the reference. card_free()'s callees (snd_usb_caiaq_input_free, free_urbs, kfree) already tolerate the partially-initialized state because the chip private area is zero-initialized by snd_card_new().

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from f6634af5de728a46792f674a66d7843570cb68f7 to 50c6a1f05973f56d23280c9d7645a7a5734e0907 (excl.)
  • affected from 1d9be95aee6c6246a21752e60c9519902649f482 to da3b8fd6a202d94fef11a443abc9171c52426a1c (excl.)
  • affected from 6473ed16df1fe88051140611b3eb9a49be7f429e to 6153878c5255bb69b7d0868105ca078ef13cbcf8 (excl.)
  • affected from 59b622a043cffc58b7638cd85ae6c30a0904f8e6 to 21ca595aafa40d3ac70eab1f4cb62cc00ca21657 (excl.)
  • affected from 80bb50e2d459213cccff3111d5ef98ed4238c0d5 to 7a5f1cd22d47f8ca4b760b6334378ae42c1bd24b (excl.)
  • affected from 6.6.136 to 6.6.140 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.12.84 to 6.12.86 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.18.25 to 6.18.27 (excl.)
  • affected from 7.0.2 to 7.0.4 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 7.1-rc1 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 7.1-rc1 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.140 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.86 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.27 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0.4 to 7.0.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1-rc2 to * (incl.)

References