CVE-2023-50229 [High] | RCE in Bluez

BlueZ Phone Book Access Profile Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows network-adjacent attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of BlueZ. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must connect to a malicious Bluetooth device. The specific flaw exists within the handling of the Phone Book Access profile. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a fixed-length heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of root. Was ZDI-CAN-20936.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-03-06	3.88%	3.59%	-0.29%
2	2025-11-21	0.40%	3.88%	+3.48%
3	2025-11-18	—	0.40%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-03-06

3.88%

3.59%

-0.29%

2025-11-21

0.40%

3.88%

+3.48%

2025-11-18

—

0.40%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
8.0	3.1	HIGH	`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:A) Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.1	5.9	[email protected]
7.1	3.0	HIGH	`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:A) Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet. Attack complexity (AC:H) Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.2	5.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

8.0

3.1

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:A): Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.1

5.9

[email protected]

7.1

3.0

HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:A): Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:H): Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.2

5.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-50229

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	high	CVE-2023-50229: 1 source package rows (bluez); 2 state rows across 2 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main); fixed 0, open 2.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-50229
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2023-50229 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (bluez), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-50229
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-50229
`suse`	high	CVE-2023-50229 severity important: SUSE including 34 source package names (bluez, bluez-5.48-150000.5.54.1, …), 124 product×package rows across 52 product lines (Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS, Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production, … (52 product lines)): Fixed 101, Known Not Affected 23.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-50229/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-50229 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (bluez), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): not-affected 4, released 3, needs-triage 2.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-50229

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-50229

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
bluez	bluez	>= 5.66, < 5.70	cpe:2.3:a:bluez:bluez::::::::

References for CVE-2023-50229

URL	Tags
https://github.com/bluez/bluez/commit/5ab5352531a9cc7058cce569607f3a6831464443	Patch
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-23-1811/	Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/09/msg00022.html

URL

CVE-2023-50229 | BlueZ Phone Book Access Profile Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-50229

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-50229

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-50229

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-50229

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-50229

References for CVE-2023-50229