Linux kernel: Bluetooth MGMT use-after-free vulnerability allows privilege escalation
CVE: CVE-2025-38118
Component: kernel
CWE: CWE-825
Severity: Moderate
CVSS v3: 5.6/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Release date: 2025-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Bluetooth: MGMT: Fix UAF on mgmt_remove_adv_monitor_complete

This reworks MGMT_OP_REMOVE_ADV_MONITOR to not use mgmt_pending_add to
avoid crashes like bellow:

==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mgmt_remove_adv_monitor_complete+0xe5/0x540 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5406
Read of size 8 at addr ffff88801c53f318 by task kworker/u5:5/5341

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5341 Comm: kworker/u5:5 Not tainted 6.15.0-syzkaller-10402-g4cb6c8af8591 #0 PREEMPT(full)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014
Workqueue: hci0 hci_cmd_sync_work
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120
 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:408 [inline]
 print_report+0xd2/0x2b0 mm/kasan/report.c:521
 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:634
 mgmt_remove_adv_monitor_complete+0xe5/0x540 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5406
 hci_cmd_sync_work+0x261/0x3a0 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:334
 process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3238 [inline]
 process_scheduled_works+0xade/0x17b0 kernel/workqueue.c:3321
 worker_thread+0x8a0/0xda0 kernel/workqueue.c:3402
 kthread+0x711/0x8a0 kernel/kthread.c:464
 ret_from_fork+0x3fc/0x770 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:148
 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245
 </TASK>

Allocated by task 5987:
 kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline]
 kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68
 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline]
 __kasan_kmalloc+0x93/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:394
 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline]
 __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x230/0x3d0 mm/slub.c:4358
 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:905 [inline]
 kzalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:1039 [inline]
 mgmt_pending_new+0x65/0x240 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:252
 mgmt_pending_add+0x34/0x120 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:279
 remove_adv_monitor+0x103/0x1b0 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5454
 hci_mgmt_cmd+0x9c9/0xef0 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1719
 hci_sock_sendmsg+0x6ca/0xef0 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1839
 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline]
 __sock_sendmsg+0x219/0x270 net/socket.c:727
 sock_write_iter+0x258/0x330 net/socket.c:1131
 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:593 [inline]
 vfs_write+0x548/0xa90 fs/read_write.c:686
 ksys_write+0x145/0x250 fs/read_write.c:738
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

Freed by task 5989:
 kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline]
 kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68
 kasan_save_free_info+0x46/0x50 mm/kasan/generic.c:576
 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline]
 __kasan_slab_free+0x62/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:264
 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline]
 slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2380 [inline]
 slab_free mm/slub.c:4642 [inline]
 kfree+0x18e/0x440 mm/slub.c:4841
 mgmt_pending_foreach+0xc9/0x120 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:242
 mgmt_index_removed+0x10d/0x2f0 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:9366
 hci_sock_bind+0xbe9/0x1000 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1314
 __sys_bind_socket net/socket.c:1810 [inline]
 __sys_bind+0x2c3/0x3e0 net/socket.c:1841
 __do_sys_bind net/socket.c:1846 [inline]
 __se_sys_bind net/socket.c:1844 [inline]
 __x64_sys_bind+0x7a/0x90 net/socket.c:1844
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f


Remediation: