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CVE-2026-80683

Bluetooth: SCO: give the socket its own sco_conn reference

8.8 EPSS 0.4% AV:A

Published 2026-08-28 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem net/bluetooth. Debian urgency: unimportant.

What to do, per Debian release

Debian's own status for CVE-2026-80683 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source

ReleaseStatus VersionWhat this means
Debian 12bookwormnot affected6.1.190-1Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 13trixienot affected6.12.113-1Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 14forkyfixed7.1.8-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.8-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.
Debian unstablesidfixed7.1.8-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.8-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.

The vulnerability

What the bug is

sco_conn_del() drops a reference it does not own. It takes one transient reference via sco_conn_hold_unless_zero() and releases it with the sco_conn_put() that follows sco_sock_hold(); the additional put in the !sk branch releases a second one: conn = sco_conn_hold_unless_zero(conn); ... sk = sco_sock_hold(conn); sco_conn_unlock(conn); sco_conn_put(conn); if (!sk) { sco_conn_put(conn); return; } When close() races the controller's Disconnection Complete, sco_chan_del() clears conn->sk and drops the socket's reference while sco_conn_del() is running. sco_conn_del() then sees sk == NULL, its own put drops the count to zero and frees the conn, and the second put writes to the freed kref: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sco_conn_put.part.0+0x1a/0x190 Write of size 4 at addr ffff8881099dec74 by task kworker/u17:3/413 Workqueue: hci1 hci_rx_work Call Trace: sco_conn_put.part.0+0x1a/0x190 hci_disconn_complete_evt+0x1ee/0x3e0 hci_event_packet+0x54a/0x650 hci_rx_work+0x321/0x3d0 Allocated by task 413: sco_conn_add+0x72/0x1a0 sco_connect_cfm+0x88/0x670 Freed by task 413: sco_conn_del.isra.0+0x3f/0xf0 hci_disconn_complete_evt+0x1ee/0x3e0 refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. The root cause is that the socket stores the connection without holding a reference of its own. __sco_chan_add() does: sco_pi(sk)->conn = conn; so the socket borrows whatever reference its caller happened to hold, and the callers paper over that with ad-hoc holds and puts. Give the socket a counted reference instead: __sco_chan_add() takes one and it is released together with the channel (sco_chan_del()) and in sco_sock_destruct(). With the socket holding its own reference, sco_conn_del() no longer needs the extra put and the redundant hold in sco_conn_ready() goes away. Making the socket own its reference means the connection is now actually freed on the error paths of sco_connect() where it used to leak, which in turn runs sco_conn_free() and its hci_conn_drop(conn->hcon). To keep the hci_conn accounting balanced, make that ownership explicit as well: sco_conn_add() consumes one hci_conn reference and the sco_conn owns it for its lifetime. sco_connect() hands over the reference returned by hci_connect_sco() and no longer drops it on the error paths; sco_connect_cfm(), which is not given a reference, takes one with hci_conn_hold() before handing it to sco_conn_add() (and drops it again if the allocation fails); and the explicit hci_conn_hold() in sco_conn_ready() is removed. Every reference then has a single, clear owner.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

net/bluetooth/sco.c

What this is
BLUETOOTH SUBSYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on net/bluetooth/ · linux-bluetooth@vger.kernel.org · Supported
Kernel module
bluetooth

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_BT|CONFIG_BT_BREDR' /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

lsmod | grep -w bluetooth

Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed.

  • bookwormMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64
  • trixie, forky, sidMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64, s390x/s390x
M
a module where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it
Build switches
CONFIG_BT, CONFIG_BT_BREDR
Reads as
all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published
2026-08-28 (2 months ago)source
CVSS
8.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it
Attack vector
adjacent network (AV:A)source
EPSS
0.36%, higher than 28.8% of all CVEssource
CISA KEV
not listedthe KEV catalogue
Debian urgency
unimportantsource
Subsystem
net/bluetooth

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

IntroducedFixed inCommit
6.136.18.44a33bc07b4730
6.137.1.88fe627192fa5
6.137.2abd93c85c866

Why the CNA scored it this way

Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source

AV:AAttack vector, adjacent network
The UAF is triggered in sco_conn_del() from hci_disconn_complete_evt on hci_rx_work when the Bluetooth controller reports SCO/eSCO teardown, which is driven by an in-range peer disconnect; Bluetooth SCO is an adjacent-radio protocol path, not a local-only syscall entry point.
AC:LAttack complexity, low
The failure is a close()-versus-Disconnection-Complete race where the attacker controls both sides by concurrently closing the SCO socket while inducing HCI disconnect (local threads or a nearby peer hanging up), and can repeat connect/disconnect cycles until the window is hit.
PR:NPrivileges required, none
An adjacent Bluetooth peer can send the disconnect that produces Disconnection Complete without any Linux credentials on the victim, and SCO sockets have no capability gate; only an active SCO session on init_net is needed, not root or CAP_NET_ADMIN.
UI:NUser interaction, none
Exploitation does not require victim interaction beyond an already-active SCO link (headset/call); the attacker can time peer-initiated disconnects against automatic socket teardown without social engineering or manual victim steps.
S:UScope, unchanged
The refcount use-after-free corrupts kernel Bluetooth connection state within the same kernel security authority; it is standard kernel memory corruption, not a VM escape, IOMMU bypass, or other cross-scope boundary violation.
C:HConfidentiality impact, high
sco_conn_del() performs a double sco_conn_put() that writes to a freed kref (4-byte slab UAF), enabling heap reuse and arbitrary kernel memory disclosure primitives consistent with kernel use-after-free confidentiality impact.
I:HIntegrity impact, high
The post-free kref decrement is a controlled kernel heap write that can be groomed via repeated SCO connect/close and disconnect cycles to corrupt adjacent slab objects and achieve arbitrary write or control-flow hijack.
A:HAvailability impact, high
The bug reliably triggers kernel KASAN slab-use-after-free and refcount underflow on hci_rx_work during disconnect handling, producing oops/panic, and can be retriggered to deny service.