Kernel crash via Bluetooth connection teardown race
Published Dec 16, 2025 · Updated Dec 16, 2025
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel Bluetooth receive path allows physically proximate attackers to crash the host during connection teardown. The hdev lock/lookup/unlock/use sequence releases the device lock before protocol handlers use hci_conn, allowing another task to delete the object before l2cap_recv_acldata dereferences l2cap_data. Bluetooth must be connectable or advertising; crafted ACL, SCO, or ISO traffic can trigger a kernel panic without application-level authentication.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel Bluetooth receive path allows physically proximate attackers to crash the host during connection teardown. The hdev lock/lookup/unlock/use sequence releases the device lock before protocol handlers use hci_conn, allowing another task to delete the object before l2cap_recv_acldata dereferences l2cap_data. Bluetooth must be connectable or advertising; crafted ACL, SCO, or ISO traffic can trigger a kernel panic without application-level authentication.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-68304
- Published
- Dec 16, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 16, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 16, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 16, 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=4d3ca4a9aaf0aa798a6be372dc0fc3a29e37dd57
- Affected versionversion=5af1f84ed13a416297ab9ced7537f4d5ae7f329a <79a2d4678ba90bdba577dc3af88cc900d6dcd5ee
- Affected versionversion=5af1f84ed13a416297ab9ced7537f4d5ae7f329a <ec74cdf77310c43b01b83ee898a9bd4b4b0b8e93
- Affected versionversion=6.6
- Affected versionversion=80265dd1d944c3f33e52375b5dbe654980bd2688
- Affected versionversion=cd55c13bbb3d093ae601aa97e588ed4c1390ebb1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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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