[PATCH 5.10.y] ALSA: aloop: Fix racy access at PCM trigger

From: Karl Mehltretter

Date: Tue Sep 01 2026 - 07:17:16 EST


From: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@xxxxxxx>

[ Upstream commit 826af7fa62e347464b1b4e0ba2fe19a92438084f ]

The PCM trigger callback of aloop driver tries to check the PCM state
and stop the stream of the tied substream in the corresponding cable.
Since both check and stop operations are performed outside the cable
lock, this may result in UAF when a program attempts to trigger
frequently while opening/closing the tied stream, as spotted by
fuzzers.

For addressing the UAF, this patch changes two things:
- It covers the most of code in loopback_check_format() with
cable->lock spinlock, and add the proper NULL checks. This avoids
already some racy accesses.
- In addition, now we try to check the state of the capture PCM stream
that may be stopped in this function, which was the major pain point
leading to UAF.

Reported-by: syzbot+5f8f3acdee1ec7a7ef7b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/69783ba1.050a0220.c9109.0011.GAE@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260203141003.116584-1-tiwai@xxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@xxxxxxx>
[ Karl Mehltretter: open-coded spin_lock_irqsave() instead of scoped_guard();
used snd_pcm_running() instead of cruntime->state; dropped the access-mode
comparison and notification (462494565c27, e299a9fd433f, cdac6e1f7164);
kept the stop_count handling from the e5c33cdc6f40 backport. ]
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@xxxxxxxxx>
---
e5c33cdc6f40 ("ALSA: aloop: Fix peer runtime UAF during format-change
stop") went into 5.10.y (83bd62fa9620) and 5.15.y (345c24b2bcf0) without
this prerequisite, so stop_count is only taken after the unlocked peer
lookup and format checks.

The 5.10.y and 5.15.y backports are submitted as separate mails with
identical source diffs. The 6.1.y and 6.6.y branches need both upstream
fixes and are handled by separate two-patch submissions.

Tested on v5.10.268 with KASAN under QEMU; a kprobe widened the race.
Vulnerable kernel, probe at loopback_trigger+0x679 after the peer-runtime
load: KASAN UAF, then a NULL dereference and Oops. Fixed kernel, probe at
+0x93, placed just inside the new lock boundary so the close contends on
cable->lock: no KASAN report or Oops.

Functional A/B, same initramfs: all 4096 captured frames matched
byte-for-byte and control/mismatch handling passed. A prepared-but-idle
capture remained PREPARED when mismatched playback started instead of being
forced to DRAINING, matching upstream.
aloop.o builds on v5.10.268 and v5.15.219. The patch also applies unchanged
to v5.10.269-rc1 and v5.15.220-rc1.

sound/drivers/aloop.c | 99 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
1 file changed, 59 insertions(+), 40 deletions(-)

diff --git a/sound/drivers/aloop.c b/sound/drivers/aloop.c
index 314ced32efbbc..3901f52164933 100644
--- a/sound/drivers/aloop.c
+++ b/sound/drivers/aloop.c
@@ -323,56 +323,75 @@ static int loopback_snd_timer_close_cable(struct loopback_pcm *dpcm)

static int loopback_check_format(struct loopback_cable *cable, int stream)
{
+ struct loopback_pcm *dpcm_play, *dpcm_capt;
struct snd_pcm_runtime *runtime, *cruntime;
struct loopback_setup *setup;
struct snd_card *card;
- int check;
+ unsigned long flags;
+ bool stop_capture = false;
+ int check, err = 0;
+
+ spin_lock_irqsave(&cable->lock, flags);
+ dpcm_play = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK];
+ dpcm_capt = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE];

if (cable->valid != CABLE_VALID_BOTH) {
- if (stream == SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK)
- goto __notify;
- return 0;
- }
- runtime = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK]->
- substream->runtime;
- cruntime = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE]->
- substream->runtime;
- check = runtime->format != cruntime->format ||
- runtime->rate != cruntime->rate ||
- runtime->channels != cruntime->channels;
- if (!check)
- return 0;
- if (stream == SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE) {
- return -EIO;
+ if (stream == SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE || !dpcm_play)
+ goto unlock;
} else {
- /* close must not free the peer runtime below */
- atomic_inc(&cable->stop_count);
- snd_pcm_stop(cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE]->
- substream, SNDRV_PCM_STATE_DRAINING);
- if (atomic_dec_and_test(&cable->stop_count))
- wake_up(&cable->stop_wait);
- __notify:
- runtime = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK]->
- substream->runtime;
- setup = get_setup(cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK]);
- card = cable->streams[SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK]->loopback->card;
- if (setup->format != runtime->format) {
- snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
- &setup->format_id);
- setup->format = runtime->format;
+ if (!dpcm_play || !dpcm_capt) {
+ err = -EIO;
+ goto unlock;
}
- if (setup->rate != runtime->rate) {
- snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
- &setup->rate_id);
- setup->rate = runtime->rate;
+ runtime = dpcm_play->substream->runtime;
+ cruntime = dpcm_capt->substream->runtime;
+ if (!runtime || !cruntime) {
+ err = -EIO;
+ goto unlock;
}
- if (setup->channels != runtime->channels) {
- snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
- &setup->channels_id);
- setup->channels = runtime->channels;
+ check = runtime->format != cruntime->format ||
+ runtime->rate != cruntime->rate ||
+ runtime->channels != cruntime->channels;
+ if (!check)
+ goto unlock;
+ if (stream == SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_CAPTURE) {
+ err = -EIO;
+ goto unlock;
+ } else if (snd_pcm_running(dpcm_capt->substream)) {
+ /* close must not free the peer runtime below */
+ atomic_inc(&cable->stop_count);
+ stop_capture = true;
}
}
- return 0;
+
+ setup = get_setup(dpcm_play);
+ card = dpcm_play->loopback->card;
+ runtime = dpcm_play->substream->runtime;
+ if (setup->format != runtime->format) {
+ snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
+ &setup->format_id);
+ setup->format = runtime->format;
+ }
+ if (setup->rate != runtime->rate) {
+ snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
+ &setup->rate_id);
+ setup->rate = runtime->rate;
+ }
+ if (setup->channels != runtime->channels) {
+ snd_ctl_notify(card, SNDRV_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE,
+ &setup->channels_id);
+ setup->channels = runtime->channels;
+ }
+
+unlock:
+ spin_unlock_irqrestore(&cable->lock, flags);
+ if (stop_capture) {
+ snd_pcm_stop(dpcm_capt->substream, SNDRV_PCM_STATE_DRAINING);
+ if (atomic_dec_and_test(&cable->stop_count))
+ wake_up(&cable->stop_wait);
+ }
+
+ return err;
}

static void loopback_active_notify(struct loopback_pcm *dpcm)
--
2.53.0