CVE-2026-97931: ALSA: us122l: Prevent write upgrades for read mappings

Severity: high (CVSS 7.0 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-25 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ALSA: us122l: Prevent write upgrades for read mappings The hwdep mmap callback rejects read-buffer mappings that are initially writable, but leaves VM_MAYWRITE set on mappings created with PROT_READ. A process that can open the hwdep node O_RDWR can later use mprotect() to make the mapping writable. The read allocation begins with struct usb_stream. Its read_size member is used by the fault handler to decide which pages belong to the read buffer. The read VMA intentionally remains expandable because pcm_usb_stream uses mremap() after reading that size. Changing read_size first can therefore map and access pages beyond the allocation. The same member is also consumed by usb_stream_free(), where changing it can make free_pages_exact() release pages outside the allocation. Clear VM_MAYWRITE for read-buffer mappings after rejecting an initially writable VMA. This keeps the separate output-buffer mapping writable while preventing later permission upgrades.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 2.6.28 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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