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High

Use-after-free in Linux kernel Bluetooth L2CAP l2cap_unregister_user

IdentifiersCVE-2026-23461CWE-416· Use After Free

CVE-2026-23461 is a Linux kernel Bluetooth L2CAP vulnerability caused by inconsistent locking around the l2cap_conn structure. After commit ab4eedb790ca ("Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix corrupted list in hci_chan_del"), l2cap_conn_del() began using conn->lock to protect access to conn->users. However, l2cap_register_user() and l2cap_unregister_user() continued to use different locking semantics and did not take conn->lock. This created a race condition in which l2cap_register_user() or l2cap_unregister_user() could access conn->users and conn->hchan concurrently with l2cap_conn_del(). The resulting concurrency bug can trigger use-after-free and list corruption in the Bluetooth L2CAP subsystem. The issue was reported by syzbot. The fix changes l2cap_register_user() and l2cap_unregister_user() to use conn->lock instead of hci_dev_lock(), restoring consistent synchronization for l2cap_conn state.

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Impact, mitigation & remediation

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Impact

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Successful exploitation can cause memory-safety violations in the kernel Bluetooth stack, specifically use-after-free and list corruption conditions. Because the flaw is in kernel-space code, impact can include kernel crash or denial of service, memory corruption, and potentially compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Available CVSS assessments indicate high impact across C, I, and A.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by disabling Bluetooth where not required, unloading or blacklisting affected Bluetooth kernel modules if operationally feasible, and limiting adjacent-network Bluetooth reachability. Because this is a kernel race in the Bluetooth L2CAP subsystem, there is no complete mitigation short of applying the fixed kernel.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply a kernel update that includes the upstream fix for CVE-2026-23461. The remediation is to use conn->lock consistently in l2cap_register_user() and l2cap_unregister_user() instead of hci_dev_lock(), matching l2cap_conn_del() locking and preventing concurrent unsafe access to conn->users and conn->hchan. On SUSE systems, install the relevant fixed kernel packages from the published advisories and reboot into the updated kernel.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

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EXPOSURE SURFACE

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LinuxLinux Kerneloperating_system

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ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

2 sources tracked across advisories and community write-ups. News coverage will land here when it surfaces.

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