CVE-2026-2411 Missing authorization in zephyr
Remote attackers can bypass encryption requirements to read protected Bluetooth GATT characteristic values if notifications are enabled on unsecured links.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-2411?
CVE-2026-2411 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Zephyrproject Zephyr, published on 1 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Zephyr's Bluetooth host declares a GATT characteristic as two consecutive attributes: a Characteristic Declaration whose permission is hard-coded to BT_GATT_PERM_READ, and a Characteristic Value attribute that carries the application-specified security permissions (e.g. BT_GATT_PERM_READ_ENCRYPT / READ_AUTHEN / READ_LESC). The public notify and indicate APIs explicitly accept either attribute, and passing the declaration is the documented, common idiom. Before sending each notification or indication, the host re-checks link security with bt_gatt_check_perm() against params->attr in gatt_notify(), gatt_indicate(), and gatt_notify_multiple_verify_params() (subsys/bluetooth/host/gatt.c).
When the application passed the Characteristic Declaration attribute, the host correctly redirected the value handle but left params->attr pointing at the declaration, so the security check evaluated the declaration's permissions (no security required) instead of the value's. As a result the encryption/authentication/LESC requirement configured on the characteristic value was skipped. The Notify-Multiple path additionally used a mask that omitted the LE Secure Connections requirement.
A remote peer triggers the disclosure by connecting (optionally without pairing or encryption) and writing the Client Characteristic Configuration descriptor to enable notifications or indications, causing the server to emit the protected value over a link that has not reached the required security level. The impact is information disclosure / access-control bypass for characteristic values the application intended to expose only over a secured link; exposure depends on the application declaring encrypt/authen-required notify/indicate characteristics and on the CCC being writable at a lower security tier. There is no memory-safety or availability impact.
The fix adds bt_gatt_attr_resolve_value(), which maps a declaration attribute to the following value attribute before the permission check, and switches the Notify-Multiple path to the full BT_GATT_PERM_READ_ENCRYPT_MASK so the LESC requirement is also enforced.
Weakness: CWE-863
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-2411?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Zephyrproject Zephyr.
How do I fix CVE-2026-2411?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-2411 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.
Is CVE-2026-2411 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-2411 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Zephyrproject Zephyr
- CVE-2026-5067 Out-of-bounds read/write in HTTP WebSocket upgrade via non-null-terminated Sec-WebSocket-Key
- CVE-2022-3806 Bluetooth HCI Error Handling Double Free
- CVE-2017-14199 Memory corruption in getaddrinfo
- CVE-2018-1000800 Null dereference in n/a
- CVE-2021-3329 DOS: Incorrect handling of the initial HCI ACL_MTU handshake packet leads to crash of bluetooth host layer
Sources
Also known as GHSA-4w3r-v9q9-4462.