Kernel crash or corruption via L2CAP race
Published Dec 30, 2025 · Updated Dec 30, 2025
Use-after-free in Bluetooth L2CAP in affected Linux kernel branches allows physically proximate attackers to crash or corrupt the kernel. Buffer allocation through alloc_skb can drop and later reacquire the channel lock, allowing a concurrent disconnection to free the L2CAP connection before the caller resumes using it. Exploitation requires Bluetooth radio proximity and winning the disconnect race; successful access is bounded to kernel memory disclosure, modification, or service interruption.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Bluetooth L2CAP in affected Linux kernel branches allows physically proximate attackers to crash or corrupt the kernel. Buffer allocation through alloc_skb can drop and later reacquire the channel lock, allowing a concurrent disconnection to free the L2CAP connection before the caller resumes using it. Exploitation requires Bluetooth radio proximity and winning the disconnect race; successful access is bounded to kernel memory disclosure, modification, or service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-54214
- Published
- Dec 30, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 30, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 30, 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.
- Affected versionversion=3.5
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <31a288a4df7f6a28e65da22a4ab2add4a963738e
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <60aaccf16d1e099c16bebfb96428ae762cb528f7
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <64e28ecf44e46de9f01915a4146706a21c3469d2
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <994e3e18908f5c4a12d07b44018e6aa85f071048
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <a6a7d1541fefddf7ca0cfb34c1bff63ff809cc49
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <b2fde8cb2a25125111f2144604e0e7c0ebcc4bba
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <b8ed41cc04fb74005aa51d17865ca3d022760335
- Affected versionversion=a6a5568c03c4805d4d250f6bd9d468eeeb4ea059 <df5703348813235874d851934e957c3723d71644
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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