In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ALSA: seq: Fix division by zero in initialize_timer()
A userspace-driven ALSA timer (SND_UTIMER) lets an unprivileged user set the backing snd_timer's hardware resolution to an arbitrary 64-bit value via SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_CREATE. snd_utimer_create() only rejects zero.
When such a timer is bound to a sequencer queue, initialize_timer() computes the tick period as
tmr->ticks = 1000000000 / (r * freq);
where r is that user-controlled resolution and freq is the sequencer update rate in Hz, clamped to MIN_FREQUENCY..MAX_FREQUENCY (10..6250). A resolution of 2^63 makes the 64-bit product r * freq wrap to zero for any even freq, including DEFAULT_FREQUENCY (1000), so the division faults with a divide-by-zero.
The division runs under tmr->lock with interrupts disabled, so the oops leaves the spinlock held and hangs the CPU. It is reachable by an unprivileged user with access to /dev/snd/timer and /dev/snd/seq.
Oops: divide error: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 7 UID: 1000 PID: 456 Comm: alsa_seq_utimer Not tainted 7.2.0-rc4+ RIP: 0010:initialize_timer.constprop.0+0x20a/0x2d0 snd_seq_timer_start+0x15e/0x2b0 snd_seq_control_queue+0x56f/0xba0 snd_seq_write+0x3e0/0x730
Reject an overflowing product with check_mul_overflow() and fall back to a single tick, which also avoids feeding a wrapped-but-nonzero divisor (e.g. 2^63 * 1000 mod 2^64 == 0, or other resolutions wrapping to a small value) into the period computation.
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | — | Upgrade linux | Aug 26, 2026 | Aug 26, 2026 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution exists | Aug 24, 2026 | Aug 15, 2026 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Aug 21, 2026 | Aug 15, 2026 |
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