# CVE-2022-49908: Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix memory leak in vhci_write

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel Bluetooth L2CAP subsystem allows attackers to cause a denial of service by exhausting system memory.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 May 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49908, GHSA-p98w-xrc8-4w6x, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49908

## What is CVE-2022-49908?

CVE-2022-49908 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix memory leak in vhci_write

Syzkaller reports a memory leak as follows:
====================================
BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff88810d81ac00 (size 240):
  [...]
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
  backtrace:
    [<ffffffff838733d9>] __alloc_skb+0x1f9/0x270 net/core/skbuff.c:418
    [<ffffffff833f742f>] alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1257 [inline]
    [<ffffffff833f742f>] bt_skb_alloc include/net/bluetooth/bluetooth.h:469 [inline]
    [<ffffffff833f742f>] vhci_get_user drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:391 [inline]
    [<ffffffff833f742f>] vhci_write+0x5f/0x230 drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:511
    [<ffffffff815e398d>] call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:2192 [inline]
    [<ffffffff815e398d>] new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:491 [inline]
    [<ffffffff815e398d>] vfs_write+0x42d/0x540 fs/read_write.c:578
    [<ffffffff815e3cdd>] ksys_write+0x9d/0x160 fs/read_write.c:631
    [<ffffffff845e0645>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
    [<ffffffff845e0645>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
    [<ffffffff84600087>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
====================================

HCI core will uses hci_rx_work() to process frame, which is queued to
the hdev->rx_q tail in hci_recv_frame() by HCI driver.

Yet the problem is that, HCI core may not free the skb after handling
ACL data packets. To be more specific, when start fragment does not
contain the L2CAP length, HCI core just copies skb into conn->rx_skb and
finishes frame process in l2cap_recv_acldata(), without freeing the skb,
which triggers the above memory leak.

This patch solves it by releasing the relative skb, after processing
the above case in l2cap_recv_acldata().

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49908?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49908?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49908 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-49908 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49908 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49908/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49908/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49908
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49908
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49908

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49908/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
