Bug 2516877 (CVE-2026-74278)

Summary: CVE-2026-74278 kernel: ALSA: seq: Fix kernel heap address leak in bounce_error_event()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) sequencer. A local attacker could exploit a vulnerability in the `bounce_error_event()` function, which improperly handles bounce error events for user clients. This flaw allows for the disclosure of kernel heap memory addresses to userspace, potentially providing sensitive information that could aid in further attacks.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:38:10 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ALSA: seq: Fix kernel heap address leak in bounce_error_event()

The comment above bounce_error_event() documents that user clients
should receive SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_BOUNCE with the original event embedded
as variable-length data, while kernel clients should receive
SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_KERNEL_ERROR with a quoted kernel pointer.

However, the implementation unconditionally uses
SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_KERNEL_ERROR with data.quote.event set to the raw
struct snd_seq_event pointer for all clients.  When a bounce error
event is delivered to a USER_CLIENT via snd_seq_read(), the kernel
heap address in data.quote.event is exposed to userspace through
copy_to_user() in the fixed-length branch.

This is a distinct leak path from the one addressed by commit
705dd6dcbc0e ("ALSA: seq: Clear variable event pointer on read"),
which sanitizes data.ext.ptr in the variable-length branch of
snd_seq_read().  The bounce_error_event() leak uses fixed-length
events that take the else branch where no sanitization occurs.

Differentiate the bounce event by client type.  For USER_CLIENT,
send SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_BOUNCE with SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_LENGTH_VARIABLE
and data.ext pointing to the original event.  The variable-length
path in snd_seq_event_dup() copies the event data into chained
cells, and snd_seq_expand_var_event() copies only the content --
never the pointer -- to userspace.  For KERNEL_CLIENT, keep the
existing SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_KERNEL_ERROR behavior with the quoted
pointer.