CVE-2026-64434: Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix UAF in channel timeout by holding conn ref

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-64434 is a high (CVSS 8.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 17.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 25-07-2026
   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 UAF in channel timeout by holding conn ref l2cap_chan_timeout() runs asynchronously and accesses chan->conn. If the connection is torn down while the timer is running or pending, chan->conn can be freed, leading to a use-after-free when the timer worker attempts to lock conn->lock: | BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in instrument_atomic_read_write include/linux/instrumented.h:112 [inline] | BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in atomic_long_try_cmpxchg_acquire include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:4456 [inline] | BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __mutex_trylock_fast kernel/locking/mutex.c:161 [inline] | BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mutex_lock+0x4f/0xa0 kernel/locking/mutex.c:318 | Write of size 8 at addr ffff8881298d9550 by task kworker/2:1/83 | | CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 83 Comm: kworker/2:1 Not tainted 7.1.0-rc6-next-20260601-dirty #6 PREEMPT(full) | Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 | Workqueue: events l2cap_chan_timeout | Call Trace: | <TASK> | instrument_atomic_read_write include/linux/instrumented.h:112 [inline] | atomic_long_try_cmpxchg_acquire include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:4456 [inline] | __mutex_trylock_fast kernel/locking/mutex.c:161 [inline] | mutex_lock+0x4f/0xa0 kernel/locking/mutex.c:318 | l2cap_chan_timeout+0x5d/0x1b0 net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:422 | process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3326 [inline] | process_scheduled_works+0x7c8/0xfb0 kernel/workqueue.c:3409 | worker_thread+0x8a9/0xcf0 kernel/workqueue.c:3490 | kthread+0x346/0x430 kernel/kthread.c:436 | ret_from_fork+0x1a3/0x470 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158 | ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 | </TASK> | | Allocated by task 320: | l2cap_conn_add+0xa7/0x820 net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:7075 | l2cap_connect_cfm+0xdb/0xd70 net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:7452 | hci_connect_cfm include/net/bluetooth/hci_core.h:2139 [inline] | hci_remote_features_evt+0x52f/0x9f0 net/bluetooth/hci_event.c:3760 | hci_event_func net/bluetooth/hci_event.c:7796 [inline] | hci_event_packet+0x561/0xa70 net/bluetooth/hci_event.c:7847 | hci_rx_work+0x370/0x890 net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:4040 | process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3326 [inline] | process_scheduled_works+0x7c8/0xfb0 kernel/workqueue.c:3409 | worker_thread+0x8a9/0xcf0 kernel/workqueue.c:3490 | kthread+0x346/0x430 kernel/kthread.c:436 | ret_from_fork+0x1a3/0x470 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158 | ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 | | Freed by task 322: | hci_disconn_cfm include/net/bluetooth/hci_core.h:2154 [inline] | hci_conn_hash_flush+0x101/0x1f0 net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:2736 | hci_dev_close_sync+0x889/0xde0 net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:5405 | hci_dev_do_close net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:502 [inline] | hci_unregister_dev+0x1f7/0x370 net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:2679 | vhci_release+0x12a/0x180 drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:690 | __fput+0x369/0x890 fs/file_table.c:510 | task_work_run+0x160/0x1d0 kernel/task_work.c:233 | get_signal+0xf5b/0x1120 kernel/signal.c:2810 | arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x4d/0x600 arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:337 | __exit_to_user_mode_loop kernel/entry/common.c:64 [inline] | exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x85/0x510 kernel/entry/common.c:98 | do_syscall_64+0x263/0x3d0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:100 | entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f | | The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8881298d9400 | which belongs to the cache kmalloc-512 of size 512 | The buggy address is located 336 bytes inside of | freed 512-byte region [ffff8881298d9400, ffff8881298d9600) Fix it by having chan->conn hold a reference to l2cap_conn (via l2cap_conn_get) when the channel is added to the connection, and releasing it in the channel destructor. This ensures the l2cap_conn remains alive as long as the channel exists. A new FLAG_DEL channel flag is introduced to indicate that the ch ---truncated---

• 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.