Bug 2516266 (CVE-2026-72486)

Summary:	CVE-2026-72486 kernel: mailbox: mtk-adsp: fix UAF during device teardown
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's `mtk-adsp` mailbox driver. During device teardown, if the Sound Open Firmware (SOF) audio driver fails to initialize, a timing issue can occur where an interrupt is processed after the associated memory has been released. This Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability can lead to a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:03:28 UTC

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

mailbox: mtk-adsp: fix UAF during device teardown

When the SOF audio driver fails to initialize (e.g. firmware boot
timeout), its devres unwind frees the snd_sof_dev object that the
mailbox client (mtk-adsp-ipc) reaches via chan->cl->rx_callback.
The mtk-adsp-mailbox shutdown clears the mailbox command registers
but leaves the IRQ line unmasked, so a late interrupt can still
queue a threaded handler after mbox_free_channel() had cleared
chan->cl, and mbox_chan_received_data() would then trigger UAF:

  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sof_ipc3_validate_fw_version
   sof_ipc3_validate_fw_version
   sof_ipc3_do_rx_work
   sof_ipc3_rx_msg
   mt8196_dsp_handle_request
   mtk_adsp_ipc_recv
   mbox_chan_received_data
   mtk_adsp_mbox_isr
   irq_thread_fn
  Freed by task ...:
   kfree
   devres_release_all
   really_probe
   ... (sof-audio-of-mt8196 probe failure)

The crash was observed roughly three seconds after the failed probe.

disable_irq() in shutdown and enable_irq() in startup. disable_irq()
also waits for any in-flight interrupts, so by the time
mbox_free_channel() proceeds to clear chan->cl no rx_callback can run.

In addition, request the IRQ with IRQF_NO_AUTOEN so it stays masked
between probe and the first client bind — otherwise an early interrupt
can crash on chan->cl == NULL in mbox_chan_received_data().

Comment 1 gkamathe 2026-08-17 15:08:40 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081538-CVE-2026-72486-4bac@gregkh/T