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Linux CVE-2026-23208

HIGH
Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)
2026-02-14 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Craft malicious USB audio device parameters
  2. Delivery
    Configure packsize exceeding maxpacksize allocation
  3. Exploit
    Trigger write operation to ALSA PCM playback
  4. Execution
    Buffer overflow in URB data handling
  5. Impact
    Kernel memory corruption and privilege escalation

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Bounds checking, write limits
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Local user account required on system with USB audio device support enabled. Attacker must have permission to configure ALSA audio parameters (maxpacksize, packsize array) and write to PCM playback stream. Requires Linux kernel with vulnerable ALSA USB audio driver without input validation on frame calculations.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to compromise the affected system.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 12, 2026

A buffer overflow in the Linux kernel's ALSA USB audio driver allows local attackers with user privileges to write beyond allocated URB buffers by crafting malicious audio parameters with mismatched packet sizes and frame counts. An attacker can trigger out-of-bounds memory corruption, potentially achieving privilege escalation or denial of service. No patch is currently available for this vulnerability.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Mar 12, 2026 - 22:03 CVSS 7.8

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

ALSA: usb-audio: Prevent excessive number of frames

In this case, the user constructed the parameters with maxpacksize 40 for rate 22050 / pps 1000, and packsize[0] 22 packsize[1] 23.

RemediationAI

Monitor vendor advisories for a patch.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

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

ALSA: usb-audio: Prevent excessive number of frames

In this case, the user constructed the parameters with maxpacksize 40 for rate 22050 / pps 1000, and packsize[0] 22 packsize[1] 23. The buffer size for each data URB is maxpacksize * packets, which in this example is 40 * 6 = 240; When the user performs a write operation to send audio data into the ALSA PCM playback stream, the calculated number of frames is packsize[0] * pac

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SUSE HIGH
Red Hat 6.5 MEDIUM

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Apr 09, 2026 - 20:30 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Feb 14, 2026 - 17:15 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionNVD

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

ALSA: usb-audio: Prevent excessive number of frames

In this case, the user constructed the parameters with maxpacksize 40 for rate 22050 / pps 1000, and packsize[0] 22 packsize[1] 23. The buffer size for each data URB is maxpacksize * packets, which in this example is 40 * 6 = 240; When the user performs a write operation to send audio data into the ALSA PCM playback stream, the calculated number of frames is packsize[0] * packets = 264, which exceeds the allocated URB buffer size, triggering the out-of-bounds (OOB) issue reported by syzbot [1].

Added a check for the number of single data URB frames when calculating the number of frames to prevent [1].

[1] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in copy_to_urb+0x261/0x460 sound/usb/pcm.c:1487 Write of size 264 at addr ffff88804337e800 by task syz.0.17/5506 Call Trace: copy_to_urb+0x261/0x460 sound/usb/pcm.c:1487 prepare_playback_urb+0x953/0x13d0 sound/usb/pcm.c:1611 prepare_outbound_urb+0x377/0xc50 sound/usb/endpoint.c:333

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2026-23208 presents notable security risk, a out-of-bounds write vulnerability rated CVSS 7.8. Exploitation could allow attackers to corrupt memory, crash the application, or potentially execute arbitrary code. Organizations should apply vendor updates when available and consider compensating controls in the interim.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Enable ASLR and DEP where available; (2) Implement network segmentation; (3) Monitor for exploitation indicators.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.0%
Top 91% exploitable
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.0%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
High

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +39
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.

Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.4.229:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.9.229:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: High
Product Status
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.105 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container:2.1.3-6.124 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/rt-os-container:2.1.3-7.146 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/baremetal-os-container:2.2.1-7.67 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container:2.2.1-5.90 Affected

References

Advisories & patches
ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8781-1 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/?id.346056 ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:0962/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:1078/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:1081/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20667/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20711/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20713/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20720/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20772/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20794/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20819/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20838/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20845/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20872/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20873/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20876/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20931/ REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/152fc4f7b4a8af1c0418d2722f3b2729799cc837 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/282aba56713bbc58155716b55ca7222b2d9cf3c8 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/480a1490c595a242f27493a4544b3efb21b29f6a REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/581821f4b2ecbf411027b0af82b561ee208f4ba4 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/62932d9ed639a9fa71b4ac1a56766a4b43abb7e4 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/81e4b0009f2acc841d77a24fd796528b0bf62c4e REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab0b5e92fc36ee82c1bd01fe896d0f775ed5de41 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4dc012b027c9eb101583011089dea14d744e314 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d67dde02049e632ba58d3c44a164a74b6a737154 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e0ed5a36fb3ab9e7b9ee45cd17f09f6d5f594360 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ef5749ef8b307bf8717945701b1b79d036af0a15

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