Executive brief
A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's audio subsystem (ASoC) specifically affecting Cirrus Logic (wm_adsp) audio drivers. The issue occurs when the system attempts to remove certain firmware controls, potentially leading to a system crash (NULL pointer dereference). This could impact the stability and availability of devices using these specific audio components.
Technical details
A NULL pointer dereference exists in the wm_adsp_control_remove() function within sound/soc/codecs/wm_adsp.c. The vulnerability occurs because the code attempts to clean up private data (cs_ctl->priv) without verifying if the pointer is NULL. This condition arises when a control is a SYSTEM control or when a codec driver hides the control, preventing the private data from being initialized. An attacker with the ability to trigger firmware control removal could cause a kernel oops or denial of service. Patches have been released across multiple stable kernel branches to add the necessary NULL check.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 5.16 to 6.18.36
Timeline
- 2026-06-04: patched: Initial patch authored by Richard Fitzgerald
- 2026-07-01: advisory: CVE published in NVD dataset
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/10def23b67b42679d5b1a356e1a6f3498bd188c3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/12e579b889624ec54a201d98fdff975de556c731
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f1be283aa777d655525d000d16474b7e7d015ea
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ee9bbe2af2f373e08d3017f9aef2f2eaf29fbc3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6effd6f7b0ba1f5d1df702b2ef7460bcc215e9b7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d3fb78b550301e43fdc60312aed733069694426