CVE-2025-38117
NoneCVSS
—
EPSS
0.2%
Published
Jul 3, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A missing lock in the Linux kernel's Bluetooth management code can let programs interfere with each other and crash the system or potentially take it over.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Local User
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Impact
- Full Compromise
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Race Condition
- Remediation
- Upgrade
- Effort
- Medium
- Patch risk
- Low
What it actually does
Race condition allowing concurrent unsynchronized access to the mgmt_pending list in the Bluetooth MGMT subsystem, resulting in use-after-free memory corruption (KASAN slab-use-after-free in hci_sock_get_channel and mgmt_pending_find).
Why it matters to the business
Kernel crashes or potential privilege escalation on Linux systems using Bluetooth, leading to denial of service, system instability, and elevated risk of full host compromise in environments with high Bluetooth or wireless management activity.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker with local access creates multiple Bluetooth sockets and issues concurrent MGMT commands that manipulate advertisement monitors or similar operations; the missing mutex allows one thread to free a pending entry while another thread dereferences it, triggering the use-after-free. Related campaigns and privilege-escalation toolkits targeting other recent kernel CVEs have been observed chaining similar Bluetooth and socket races.
How to fix it
Apply the upstream fix commit bdd56875c6926d8009914f427df71797693e90d4 or later stable kernel release; rebuild and deploy the patched kernel. For packaged distributions update redka to version 0.5.3-r4 or newer. Reboot after kernel upgrade and verify the Bluetooth stack loads the corrected mgmt_util locking logic.
How to confirm the fix worked
Confirm the running kernel contains commit bdd56875c6926d8009914f427df71797693e90d4 (via uname -r plus git describe or /proc/version_signature). Re-run syzkaller-style concurrency tests against hci_mgmt_cmd and mgmt_pending list operations; absence of KASAN reports on concurrent MGMT socket writes indicates the race is closed.
Typical attack path
- Obtain local code execution or shell on a Linux host with Bluetooth enabled
- Open multiple HCI sockets and issue parallel MGMT commands targeting advertisement monitors or pending requests
- Trigger the unprotected list traversal and removal race in mgmt_pending_find / remove_adv_monitor
- Trigger use-after-free in hci_sock_get_channel to achieve memory corruption or crash
- Leverage resulting primitive for privilege escalation or denial of service
How to detect it
Inspect kernel logs (dmesg, /var/log/kern.log, journalctl -k) for KASAN reports citing hci_sock_get_channel, mgmt_pending_find, or remove_adv_monitor with slab-use-after-free. Correlate with high volumes of concurrent Bluetooth socket syscalls from untrusted processes. Search audit logs for unusual patterns of socket creation and MGMT command writes immediately preceding crashes.
What your security team should do
- Prioritize kernel upgrade on all Bluetooth-enabled Linux endpoints within the next maintenance window
- Monitor for related kernel privilege-escalation tooling associated with the listed threat actors and recent Bluetooth CVEs
- Disable Bluetooth kernel modules on systems where wireless management is not required
- Add kernel live-patching or kpatch where available for high-value hosts until full reboot is feasible
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: MGMT: Protect mgmt_pending list with its own lock This uses a mutex to protect from concurrent access of mgmt_pending list which can cause crashes like: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 Read of size 2 at addr ffff0000c48885b2 by task syz.4.334/7318 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7318 Comm: syz.4.334 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7-syzkaller-g187899f4124a #0 PREEMPT Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/12/2025 Call trace: show_stack+0x2c/0x3c arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:466 (C) __dump_stack+0x30/0x40 lib/dump_stack.c:94 dump_stack_lvl+0xd8/0x12c lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description+0xa8/0x254 mm/kasan/report.c:408 print_report+0x68/0x84 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0xb0/0x110 mm/kasan/report.c:634 __asan_report_load2_noabort+0x20/0x2c mm/kasan/report_generic.c:379 hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 mgmt_pending_find+0x7c/0x140 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:223 pending_find net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:947 [inline] remove_adv_monitor+0x44/0x1a4 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5445 hci_mgmt_cmd+0x780/0xc00 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1712 hci_sock_sendmsg+0x544/0xbb0 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1832 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:727 [inline] sock_write_iter+0x25c/0x378 net/socket.c:1131 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:591 [inline] vfs_write+0x62c/0x97c fs/read_write.c:684 ksys_write+0x120/0x210 fs/read_write.c:736 __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:747 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:744 [inline] __arm64_sys_write+0x7c/0x90 fs/read_write.c:744 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600 Allocated by task 7037: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x44/0x54 mm/kasan/generic.c:562 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x9c/0xb4 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4327 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2fc/0x4c8 mm/slub.c:4339 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:909 [inline] sk_prot_alloc+0xc4/0x1f0 net/core/sock.c:2198 sk_alloc+0x44/0x3ac net/core/sock.c:2254 bt_sock_alloc+0x4c/0x300 net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:148 hci_sock_create+0xa8/0x194 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:2202 bt_sock_create+0x14c/0x24c net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:132 __sock_create+0x43c/0x91c net/socket.c:1541 sock_create net/socket.c:1599 [inline] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1636 [inline] __sys_socket+0xd4/0x1c0 net/socket.c:1683 __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1697 [inline] __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1695 [inline] __arm64_sys_socket+0x7c/0x94 net/socket.c:1695 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600 Freed by task 6607: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_free_info+0x58/0x70 mm/kasan/generic.c:576 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x68/0x88 mm/kasan/common.c:264 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline ---truncated---
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:11 | linux | 0 | No fix |
| Debian:12 | linux | 0 | No fix |
| Debian:13 | linux | 0 | No fix |
| Linux | Kernel | 4.1.0 | 6.6.94 |
| Mageia:9 | kernel | 0 | 6.6.101-1.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kernel-linus | 0 | 6.6.101-1.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kmod-virtualbox | 0 | 7.1.10-7.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kmod-xtables-addons | 0 | 3.24-83.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | wireless-regdb | 0 | 20250710-1.mga9 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6-RT_Update_14 | 0 | 1-150600.1.5.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_14 | 0 | 1-150600.13.3.4 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP7 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7-RT_Update_3 | 0 | 1-150700.1.5.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1.150600.12.28.4 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 | kernel-coco | 0 | 6.4.0-15061.28.coco15sp6.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 | kernel-coco_debug | 0 | 6.4.0-15061.28.coco15sp6.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 | kernel-source-coco | 0 | 6.4.0-15061.28.coco15sp6.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 | kernel-syms-coco | 0 | 6.4.0-15061.28.coco15sp6.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 | kernel-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 | kernel-source-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 | kernel-syms-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 | kernel-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 | kernel-rt_debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 | kernel-syms-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP7 | kernel-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150700.7.13.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP7 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150700.7.13.1 |
| SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP7 | kernel-syms-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150700.7.13.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1.150600.12.28.4 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-rt_debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms-azure | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.8.48.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms-rt | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.10.49.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.65.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-rt | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 |
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