CVE-2025-38117 Bluetooth: MGMT: Protect mgmt_pending list with its own lock

What is CVE-2025-38117?

CVE-2025-38117 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Jul 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: MGMT: Protect mgmt_pending list with its own lock

This uses a mutex to protect from concurrent access of mgmt_pending list which can cause crashes like:

================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 Read of size 2 at addr ffff0000c48885b2 by task syz.4.334/7318

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7318 Comm: syz.4.334 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7-syzkaller-g187899f4124a #0 PREEMPT Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/12/2025 Call trace: show_stack+0x2c/0x3c arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:466 (C) __dump_stack+0x30/0x40 lib/dump_stack.c:94 dump_stack_lvl+0xd8/0x12c lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description+0xa8/0x254 mm/kasan/report.c:408 print_report+0x68/0x84 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0xb0/0x110 mm/kasan/report.c:634 __asan_report_load2_noabort+0x20/0x2c mm/kasan/report_generic.c:379 hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 mgmt_pending_find+0x7c/0x140 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:223 pending_find net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:947 [inline] remove_adv_monitor+0x44/0x1a4 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5445 hci_mgmt_cmd+0x780/0xc00 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1712 hci_sock_sendmsg+0x544/0xbb0 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1832 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:727 [inline] sock_write_iter+0x25c/0x378 net/socket.c:1131 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:591 [inline] vfs_write+0x62c/0x97c fs/read_write.c:684 ksys_write+0x120/0x210 fs/read_write.c:736 __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:747 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:744 [inline] __arm64_sys_write+0x7c/0x90 fs/read_write.c:744 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600

Allocated by task 7037: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x44/0x54 mm/kasan/generic.c:562 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x9c/0xb4 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4327 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2fc/0x4c8 mm/slub.c:4339 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:909 [inline] sk_prot_alloc+0xc4/0x1f0 net/core/sock.c:2198 sk_alloc+0x44/0x3ac net/core/sock.c:2254 bt_sock_alloc+0x4c/0x300 net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:148 hci_sock_create+0xa8/0x194 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:2202 bt_sock_create+0x14c/0x24c net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:132 __sock_create+0x43c/0x91c net/socket.c:1541 sock_create net/socket.c:1599 [inline] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1636 [inline] __sys_socket+0xd4/0x1c0 net/socket.c:1683 __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1697 [inline] __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1695 [inline] __arm64_sys_socket+0x7c/0x94 net/socket.c:1695 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600

Freed by task 6607: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_free_info+0x58/0x70 mm/kasan/generic.c:576 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x68/0x88 mm/kasan/common.c:264 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38117?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38117?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2025-38117 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38117 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-64556, AZL-70630, BELL-CVE-2025-38117, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38117, GHSA-8j55-wwhv-cgjx, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38117 and 4 more.