In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: use RCU for hci_conn_params and iterate safely in hci_sync hci_update_accept_list_sync iterates ...
Date: 2025-09
Affected: linux/linux_kernel
Attack vector: other
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: High
CVE: CVE-2023-53252
CWE: CWE-416
CVSS: 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: use RCU for hci_conn_params and iterate safely in hci_sync hci_update_accept_list_sync iterates over hdev->pend_le_conns and hdev->pend_le_reports, and waits for controller events in the loop body, without holding hdev lock. Meanwhile, these lists and the items may be modified e.g. by le_scan_cleanup. This can invalidate the list cursor or any other item in the list, resulting to invalid behavior (eg use-after-free). Use RCU for the hci_conn_params action lists. Since the loop bodies in hci_sync block and we cannot use RCU or hdev->lock for the whole loop, copy list items first and then iterate on the copy. Only the flags field is written from elsewhere, so READ_ONCE/WRITE_ONCE should guarantee we read valid values. Free params everywhere with hci_conn_params_free so the cleanup is guaranteed to be done properly. This fixes the following, which can be triggered e.g. by BlueZ new mgmt-tester case "Add + Remove Device Nowait - Success", or by changing hci_le_set_cig_params to always return false, and running iso-tester: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in hci_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2536 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2723 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2841) Read of size 8 at addr ffff888001265018 by task kworker/u3:0/32 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.2-1.fc38 04/01/2014 Workqueue: hci0 hci_cmd_sync_work Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl (./arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:134 lib/dump_stack.c:107) print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:320 mm/kasan/report.c:430) ? __virt_addr_valid (./include/linux/mmzone.h:1915 ./include/linux/mmzone.h:2011 arch/x86/mm/physaddr.c:65) ? hci_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2536 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2723 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2841) kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:538) ? hci_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2536 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2723 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2841) hci_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2536 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2723 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2841) ? __pfx_hci_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2780) ? mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:282) ? __pfx_mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:282) ? __pfx_mutex_unlock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:538) ? __pfx_update_passive_scan_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:2861) hci_cmd_sync_work (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:306) process_one_work (./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:27 kernel/workqueue.c:2399) worker_thread (./include/linux/list.h:292 kernel/workqueue.c:2538) ? __pfx_worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:2480) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:376) ? __pfx_kthread (kernel/kthread.c:331) ret_from_fork (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:314) </TASK> Allocated by task 31: kasan_save_stack (mm/kasan/common.c:46) kasan_set_track (mm/kasan/common.c:52) __kasan_kmalloc (mm/kasan/common.c:374 mm/kasan/common.c:383) hci_conn_params_add (./include/linux/slab.h:580 ./include/linux/slab.h:720 net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:2277) hci_connect_le_scan (net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:1419 net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:1589) hci_connect_cis (net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:2266) iso_connect_cis (net/bluetooth/iso.c:390) iso_sock_connect (net/bluetooth/iso.c:899) __sys_connect (net/socket.c:2003 net/socket.c:2020) __x64_sys_connect (net/socket.c:2027) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120) Freed by task 15: kasan_save_stack (mm/kasan/common.c:46) kasan_set_track (mm/kasan/common.c:52) kasan_save_free_info (mm/kasan/generic.c:523) __kasan_slab_free (mm/kasan/common.c:238 mm/kasan/common.c:200 mm/kasan/common.c:244) __kmem_cache_free (mm/slub.c:1807 mm/slub.c:3787 mm/slub.c:3800) hci_conn_params_del (net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:2323) le_scan_cleanup (net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:202) process_one_work (./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt. ---truncated---


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):