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CVE-2026-46275

Bluetooth: hci_uart: fix UAFs and race conditions in close and init paths

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 4.15, 4.20, 5.5, 5.9, 5.10, and 7 more
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
  • Exploitation: none
  • Automatable: no
  • Technical impact: total

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_uart: fix UAFs and race conditions in close and init paths Vulnerabilities leading to Use-After-Free (UAF) and Null Pointer Dereference (NPD) conditions were observed in the lifecycle management of hci_uart. The primary issue arises because the workqueues (init_ready and write_work) are only flushed/cancelled if the HCI_UART_PROTO_READY flag is set during TTY close. If a hangup occurs before setup completes, hci_uart_tty_close() skips the teardown of these workqueues and proceeds to free the `hu` struct. When the scheduled work executes later, it blindly dereferences the freed `hu` struct. Furthermore, several data races and UAFs were identified in the teardown sequence: 1. Calling hci_uart_flush() from hci_uart_close() without effectively disabling write_work causes a race condition where both can concurrently double-free hu->tx_skb. This happens because protocol timers can concurrently invoke hci_uart_tx_wakeup() and requeue write_work. 2. Calling hci_free_dev(hdev) before hu->proto->close(hu) causes a UAF when vendor specific protocol close callbacks dereference hu->hdev. 3. In the initialization error paths, failing to take the proto_lock write lock before clearing PROTO_READY leads to races with active readers. Additionally, hci_uart_tty_receive() accesses hu->hdev outside the read lock, leading to UAFs if the initialization error path frees hdev concurrently. Fix these synchronization and lifecycle issues by: 1. Re-ordering hci_uart_tty_close() to clear HCI_UART_PROTO_READY first, followed immediately by a cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work). Clearing the flag locks out concurrent protocol timers from successfully invoking hci_uart_tx_wakeup(), effectively rendering the cancellation permanent and preventing the tx_skb double-free. 2. Note: Clearing PROTO_READY early causes hci_uart_close() to skip hu->proto->flush(). This is perfectly safe in the tty_close path because hu->proto->close() executes shortly after, which intrinsically purges all protocol SKB queues and tears down the state. 3. Relocating hu->proto->close(hu) strictly prior to hci_free_dev(hdev) across all close and error paths to prevent vendor-level UAFs. 4. Moving the hdev->stat.byte_rx increment in hci_uart_tty_receive() inside the proto_lock read-side critical section to safely synchronize with device unregistration. 5. Adding cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work) to hci_uart_close() to safely flush the workqueue before hci_uart_flush() is invoked via the HCI core. 6. Utilizing cancel_work_sync() instead of disable_work_sync() across all paths to prevent permanently breaking user-space retry capabilities.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. CISA SSVC assessment

    Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

  3. Record last updated

Affected versions

  • Linux Linux

    From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in 78aad93e938f013d9272fe0ee168f27883afa95c; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in e2d19969c8d9198ecc3090bcd5312ecd503a3339; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in c85cff648a2bc92322912db5f1727ad05afae7b6; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in 9d20d48be2c4a071fb015eb09bda2cecd25daf34; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in 81c7a3c22a0f2808cf4ae0b4908f59763b23606d; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in 192cb0f1ca706d9a1bc36ae0ad5f666d1e4fd894; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in 7338031946bd06f6dff149e67b60c4cd083bfea8; From 3b799254cf6f481460719023d7a18f46651e5e7f · fixed in c1bb9336ae6b54a5f6a353c4bd4ed9a4307e429b; From 4.14.203 · fixed in 4.15; From 4.19.153 · fixed in 4.20; From 5.4.73 · fixed in 5.5; From 5.8.17 · fixed in 5.9; From 5.9.2 · fixed in 5.10

  • Linux Linux

    5.10

  • KernelLinux

    From 5.10.0 · fixed in 5.10.258; From 5.11.0 · fixed in 5.15.209; From 5.16.0 · fixed in 6.1.175; From 6.2.0 · fixed in 6.6.142; From 6.7.0 · fixed in 6.12.92; From 6.13.0 · fixed in 6.18.34; From 6.19.0 · fixed in 7.0.11

References 8

git.kernel.org