MediaTek Audio HAL race condition leads to local DoS
CVE-2026-20492 Published on August 3, 2026
In Audio HAL, there is a possible system becoming unresponsive due to a race condition. This could lead to local denial of service with User execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation. Patch ID: ALPS10960026 (Note: For MT6880, MT6890, MT6990, MT6988) / AUTO00851250 (Note: For MT2735, MT2737); Issue ID: MSV-7583.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-20492 is exploitable with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.
Weakness Type
What is a TOCTTOU Vulnerability?
The software checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check. This can cause the software to perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state. This weakness can be security-relevant when an attacker can influence the state of the resource between check and use. This can happen with shared resources such as files, memory, or even variables in multithreaded programs.
CVE-2026-20492 has been classified to as a TOCTTOU vulnerability or weakness.
Affected Versions
MediaTek, Inc. MediaTek chipset:- Version MT2735 is affected.
- Version MT2737 is affected.
- Version MT6880 is affected.
- Version MT6890 is affected.
- Version MT6988 is affected.
- Version MT6990 is affected.