Bug 2425014 (CVE-2023-54072)

Summary: CVE-2023-54072 kernel: Linux kernel: Denial of service or memory corruption due to a data race in ALSA PCM memory allocation
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A data race in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM) memory allocation helpers allows a local user to bypass sanity checks. This can lead to the allocation of more memory than intended, potentially resulting in a denial of service (DoS) or other memory corruption issues.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-12-24 13:01:58 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ALSA: pcm: Fix potential data race at PCM memory allocation helpers

The PCM memory allocation helpers have a sanity check against too many
buffer allocations.  However, the check is performed without a proper
lock and the allocation isn't serialized; this allows user to allocate
more memories than predefined max size.

Practically seen, this isn't really a big problem, as it's more or
less some "soft limit" as a sanity check, and it's not possible to
allocate unlimitedly.  But it's still better to address this for more
consistent behavior.

The patch covers the size check in do_alloc_pages() with the
card->memory_mutex, and increases the allocated size there for
preventing the further overflow.  When the actual allocation fails,
the size is decreased accordingly.
Comment 1 Alexander B 2025-12-25 08:47:55 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025122432-CVE-2023-54072-4a34@gregkh/T