CVE-2023-54038 | Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link hci_connect_sco currently returns NULL when there is no link (i.e. when hci_conn_link() returns NULL). sco_connect() expects an ERR_PTR in case of any error (see line 266 in sco.c). Thus, hcon set as NULL passes through to sco_conn_add(), which tries to get hcon->hdev, resulting in dereferencing a NULL pointer as reported by syzkaller. The same issue exists for iso_connect_cis() calling hci_connect_cis(). Thus, make hci_connect_sco() and hci_connect_cis() return ERR_PTR instead of NULL.

Published: 2025-12-24 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-54038 is rated Low Risk (4.1/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-54038

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-12-24 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-54038

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-54038

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-54038

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-54038 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-54038
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-54038
suse medium CVE-2023-54038 severity moderate: SUSE including 399 source package names (2.1.3-6.115:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-39.1.21.16, 2.1.3-7.146:kernel-rt-6.4.0-40.1, …), 881 product×package rows across 166 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (166 product lines)): Fixed 414, Known Not Affected 236, Known Affected 231. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-54038/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-54038 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 173, not-affected 139, released 83. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-54038

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-54038

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2023-54038

cvelogic Threat Intelligence