CVE-2026-23462 Bluetooth: HIDP: Fix possible UAF

What is CVE-2026-23462?

CVE-2026-23462 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Apr 2026. 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: HIDP: Fix possible UAF

This fixes the following trace caused by not dropping l2cap_conn reference when user->remove callback is called:

[ 97.809249] l2cap_conn_free: freeing conn ffff88810a171c00 [ 97.809907] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1419 Comm: repro_standalon Not tainted 7.0.0-rc1-dirty #14 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 97.809935] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 [ 97.809947] Call Trace: [ 97.809954] <TASK> [ 97.809961] dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:122) [ 97.809990] l2cap_conn_free (net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:1808) [ 97.810017] l2cap_conn_del (./include/linux/kref.h:66 net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:1821 net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:1798) [ 97.810055] l2cap_disconn_cfm (net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:7347 (discriminator 1) net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:7340 (discriminator 1)) [ 97.810086] ? __pfx_l2cap_disconn_cfm (net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:7341) [ 97.810117] hci_conn_hash_flush (./include/net/bluetooth/hci_core.h:2152 (discriminator 2) net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c:2644 (discriminator 2)) [ 97.810148] hci_dev_close_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:5360) [ 97.810180] ? __pfx_hci_dev_close_sync (net/bluetooth/hci_sync.c:5285) [ 97.810212] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810242] ? up_write (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:87 (discriminator 5) ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2852 (discriminator 5) ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-long.h:268 (discriminator 5) ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:3391 (discriminator 5) kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1385 (discriminator 5) kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1643 (discriminator 5)) [ 97.810267] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810290] ? rcu_is_watching (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h:23 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:457 ./include/linux/context_tracking.h:128 kernel/rcu/tree.c:752) [ 97.810320] hci_unregister_dev (net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:504 net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:2716) [ 97.810346] vhci_release (drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:691) [ 97.810375] ? __pfx_vhci_release (drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:678) [ 97.810404] __fput (fs/file_table.c:470) [ 97.810430] task_work_run (kernel/task_work.c:235) [ 97.810451] ? __pfx_task_work_run (kernel/task_work.c:201) [ 97.810472] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810495] ? do_raw_spin_unlock (./include/asm-generic/qspinlock.h:128 (discriminator 5) kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:142 (discriminator 5)) [ 97.810527] do_exit (kernel/exit.c:972) [ 97.810547] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810574] ? __pfx_do_exit (kernel/exit.c:897) [ 97.810594] ? lock_acquire (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:470 (discriminator 6) kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5870 (discriminator 6) kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5825 (discriminator 6)) [ 97.810616] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810639] ? do_raw_spin_lock (kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:95 (discriminator 4) kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:118 (discriminator 4)) [ 97.810664] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810688] ? find_held_lock (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5350 (discriminator 1)) [ 97.810721] do_group_exit (kernel/exit.c:1093) [ 97.810745] get_signal (kernel/signal.c:3007 (discriminator 1)) [ 97.810772] ? security_file_permission (./arch/x86/include/asm/jump_label.h:37 security/security.c:2366) [ 97.810803] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810826] ? vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:555) [ 97.810854] ? __pfx_get_signal (kernel/signal.c:2800) [ 97.810880] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810905] ? __pfx_vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:555) [ 97.810932] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 97.810960] arch_do_signal_or_restart (arch/ ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23462?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23462?

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-2026-23462 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23462 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 BELL-CVE-2026-23462, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23462, GHSA-2m32-7xgm-rmj6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-23462, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-23462, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23462 and 3 more.