CVE-2021-41229

Adjacent service crash via unreleased SDP buffers

Published Nov 12, 2021 · Updated Nov 4, 2025

Resource exhaustion in BlueZ 5.58 allows physically proximate attackers to crash the Bluetooth service by flooding it with SDP packets. sdp_cstate_alloc_buf allocates data buffers for continuation states, links them into the cstates list, and fails to release them after their effective lifetime. The attack requires Bluetooth proximity and repeated SDP traffic; memory consumption grows over time until the service crashes, without reported data exposure or modification.

CVSS severity4.3
Medium
EPSS probability1.18%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in BlueZ 5.58 allows physically proximate attackers to crash the Bluetooth service by flooding it with SDP packets. sdp_cstate_alloc_buf allocates data buffers for continuation states, links them into the cstates list, and fails to release them after their effective lifetime. The attack requires Bluetooth proximity and repeated SDP traffic; memory consumption grows over time until the service crashes, without reported data exposure or modification.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-41229
Published
Nov 12, 2021
Updated
Nov 4, 2025
Vendor
BlueZ
Product
BlueZ
Classifications
CWE-400, CWE-401, T1499.002
Attack vector
adjacent
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Nov 12, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Nov 4, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion== 5.58

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectoradjacent
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

BlueZ · BlueZversion== 5.58

Published CVSS scores

4.3GitHub, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
6.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.3NIST NVDAV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectoradjacent
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
CWE-401Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
T1499.002Service Exhaustion Flood

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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