CVE-2026-19939: zephyrproject zephyr Expired Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-19939 is a medium (CVSS 6.3) Expired Pointer Dereference vulnerability in zephyrproject zephyr. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 13-10-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 14-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

The AVDTP signalling layer arms a 6-second command timeout (AVDTP_TIMEOUT) in avdtp_send_cmd() whenever the local device issues an AVDTP request. Every response handler in subsys/bluetooth/host/classic/avdtp.c cancels session->timeout_work before clearing the pending request, but bt_avdtp_l2cap_disconnected() only cleared session->req and left the delayable work armed. The struct bt_avdtp session is the first member of struct bt_a2dp, whose instances live in a static per-connection array, and a2dp_get_connection() in subsys/bluetooth/host/classic/a2dp.c wipes a slot with memset() as soon as session->br_chan.chan.conn is NULL — which the L2CAP layer arranges immediately after the disconnect callback returns. A remote Bluetooth BR/EDR peer triggers the condition by opening the AVDTP signalling channel, letting the local application issue an AVDTP procedure (the standard A2DP flow issues bt_a2dp_discover() from the connected callback), then tearing the signalling channel down without responding and re-opening it within the remaining timeout window. The reconnect reaches a2dp_accept() → a2dp_get_connection(), which zeroes the whole struct bt_a2dp while the work item's struct _timeout is still linked into the kernel's global timeout list. Both the disconnect and the reconnect instants are chosen by the attacker, so no race has to be won; an encrypted BR/EDR link is required, and CONFIG_BT_A2DP (experimental) must be enabled. With the default CONFIG_TIMEOUT_BACKEND_DLIST backend the kernel decides a timeout is inactive by testing whether its list node is linked, so after the memset() the kernel treats a node that is still on the global timeout list as free: the announce path pops a node whose links and handler pointer are NULL, and the next bt_work_reschedule() on the recycled session re-inserts the same node into a list that already contains it. The consequence is corruption of the single kernel data structure every timer, timeslice and sleep depends on — writes through zeroed or stale list pointers and a NULL handler dispatch — producing a system-wide crash or hang rather than a fault confined to the A2DP session. The fix cancels session->timeout_work at the top of bt_avdtp_l2cap_disconnected() and moves k_work_init_delayable() from avdtp_send_cmd() to the session-establishment paths bt_avdtp_connect() and bt_avdtp_l2cap_accept(), so the work item is always initialized before a disconnect callback can run.

• CWE-825Expired Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that contains a location for memory that was previously valid, but is no longer valid.