CVE-2026-23461: Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix use-after-free in l2cap_unregister_user

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-23461 is a high (CVSS 8.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 03-04-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 19-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix use-after-free in l2cap_unregister_user After commit ab4eedb790ca ("Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix corrupted list in hci_chan_del"), l2cap_conn_del() uses conn->lock to protect access to conn->users. However, l2cap_register_user() and l2cap_unregister_user() don't use conn->lock, creating a race condition where these functions can access conn->users and conn->hchan concurrently with l2cap_conn_del(). This can lead to use-after-free and list corruption bugs, as reported by syzbot. Fix this by changing l2cap_register_user() and l2cap_unregister_user() to use conn->lock instead of hci_dev_lock(), ensuring consistent locking for the l2cap_conn structure.

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
• CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper SynchronizationThe product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.