CVE-2026-90198

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) core. A local user could exploit a use-after-free vulnerability when a sound card is unbound while a user-space application still holds an open file descriptor. This race condition allows the system to attempt to access memory after it has been freed, potentially leading to system instability or a denial of service.

A moderate-severity use-after-free flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ALSA core (snd_card_do_free() in sound/core/init.c), affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, 9, and 10, Red Hat In-Vehicle OS 2, and the RHEL CoreOS-based nodes in OpenShift Container Platform 4. When a sound card managed by devres is unbound while a user-space application still holds an open file descriptor to it, a race between the unbind thread and the thread closing the descriptor can cause the devres core to free the snd_card structure while snd_card_do_free() still reads the card->managed field, triggering a use-after-free. A local user with the ability to open sound device file descriptors and trigger the unbind of a sound card could exploit this race to crash the kernel, resulting in a denial of service; confidentiality and integrity are not affected (Red Hat CVSS 5.5, AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 are not affected because the vulnerable code is not present in those streams. The fix for the affected products is deferred to a future update; the residual risk is limited to local denial of service, since exploitation requires local access to a system with an ALSA sound device and the impact is to availability only.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.