[PATCH 2/2] ALSA: timer: drain a slave's callback before its master detaches it
From: Norbert Szetei
Date: Mon Jul 20 2026 - 03:18:06 EST
snd_timer_close_locked() drains the closing instance's own in-flight
callback (IFLG_CALLBACK) before freeing it, but not its slaves'. When a
master instance is closed, remove_slave_links() clears each slave's
->timer; the slave's own close then reads timer == NULL and takes the
branch that skips the drain entirely (snd_timer_stop_slave() also no-ops
on a NULL timer). So a slave whose callback is still running when the
master is closed is freed underneath the live callback, leading to
use-after-free.
Drain the slaves too before remove_slave_links() severs them.
snd_timer_stop() has already taken this instance off the active list, so
no new slave callback can be queued. Take the slaves off the ack list so
a pending one can't fire either, then wait for any that is already in
flight.
Fixes: 37745918e0e7 ("ALSA: timer: Introduce virtual userspace-driven timers")
Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
Signed-off-by: Norbert Szetei <norbert@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
sound/core/timer.c | 14 ++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/sound/core/timer.c b/sound/core/timer.c
--- a/sound/core/timer.c
+++ b/sound/core/timer.c
@@ -489,10 +489,20 @@ static void snd_timer_close_locked(struct snd_timer_instance *timeri,
snd_timer_stop(timeri);
if (timer) {
+ struct snd_timer_instance *slave;
+ bool busy;
+
timer->num_instances--;
- /* wait, until the active callback is finished */
+ /* unqueue then drain the slaves' callbacks before remove_slave_links() severs them */
spin_lock_irq(&timer->lock);
- while (timeri->flags & SNDRV_TIMER_IFLG_CALLBACK) {
+ list_for_each_entry(slave, &timeri->slave_list_head, open_list)
+ list_del_init(&slave->ack_list);
+ for (;;) {
+ busy = timeri->flags & SNDRV_TIMER_IFLG_CALLBACK;
+ list_for_each_entry(slave, &timeri->slave_list_head, open_list)
+ busy |= slave->flags & SNDRV_TIMER_IFLG_CALLBACK;
+ if (!busy)
+ break;
spin_unlock_irq(&timer->lock);
udelay(10);
spin_lock_irq(&timer->lock);
}
spin_unlock_irq(&timer->lock);
remove_slave_links(timeri, timer);
--
2.55.0