Kernel crash via premature ALSA substream dereference
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in ALSA PCM memory handling in affected Linux kernel versions allows local users to crash the kernel. In snd_pcm_lib_free_pages(), the code reads substream->pcm->card before PCM_RUNTIME_CHECK verifies that substream is nonnull. A local low-privileged user must reach the ALSA PCM page-release path; a null substream triggers BUG_ON and interrupts the host.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in ALSA PCM memory handling in affected Linux kernel versions allows local users to crash the kernel. In snd_pcm_lib_free_pages(), the code reads substream->pcm->card before PCM_RUNTIME_CHECK verifies that substream is nonnull. A local low-privileged user must reach the ALSA PCM page-release path; a null substream triggers BUG_ON and interrupts the host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49498
- Published
- Feb 26, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 26, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.6
- Affected versionversion=95b30a4312545f2dde9db12bf6a425f35d5a0d77 <b2421a196cb0911ea95aec1050a0b830464c8fa6
- Affected versionversion=d4cfb30fce03093ad944e0b44bd8f40bdad5330e <011b559be832194f992f73d6c0d5485f5925a10b
- Affected versionversion=d4cfb30fce03093ad944e0b44bd8f40bdad5330e <1f2e28857be1e5c7db39bbc221332215fc5467e3
- Affected versionversion=d4cfb30fce03093ad944e0b44bd8f40bdad5330e <7784d22f81a29df2ec57ca90d54f93a35cbcd1a2
- Affected versionversion=d4cfb30fce03093ad944e0b44bd8f40bdad5330e <b41ef7ad9238c22aa2e142f5ce4ce1a1a0d48123
- Affected versionversion=d4cfb30fce03093ad944e0b44bd8f40bdad5330e <f2c68c52898f623fe84518da4606538d193b0cca
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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