CVE-2016-4578

Published: 23 May 2016

sound/core/timer.c in the Linux kernel through 4.6 does not initialize certain r1 data structures, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel stack memory via crafted use of the ALSA timer interface, related to the (1) snd_timer_user_ccallback and (2) snd_timer_user_tinterrupt functions.

From the Ubuntu security team

Kangjie Lu discovered an information leak in the timer handling implementation in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) subsystem of the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory.

Priority

Low

CVSS 3 base score: 5.5

Status

Notes

android kernels (flo, goldfish, grouper, maguro, mako and manta) are
not supported on the Ubuntu Touch 14.10 and earlier preview kernels
linux-lts-saucy no longer receives official support
linux-lts-quantal no longer receives official support

References

• https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-4578
• https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/commit/?h=for-next&id=9a47e9cff994f37f7f0dbd9ae23740d0f64f9fe6
• https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/commit/?h=for-next&id=e4ec8cc8039a7063e24204299b462bd1383184a5
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3016-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3016-2
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3017-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3017-3
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3016-3
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3016-4
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3017-2
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3020-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3018-2
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3018-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3019-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3021-2
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3021-1
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian

Bugs

• https://launchpad.net/bugs/1581866