In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: fix memory leak...

CVE-2026-53252 → View on GitHub ↗ View on CVE.org ↗ View on NVD ↗

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Bluetooth: fix memory leak in error path of hci_alloc_dev()

Early failures in Bluetooth HCI UART configuration leak SRCU percpu
memory.

When device initialization fails before hci_register_dev() completes,
the HCI_UNREGISTER flag is never set. As a result, when the device
reference count reaches zero, bt_host_release() evaluates this flag as
false and falls back to a direct kfree(hdev).

Because hci_release_dev() is bypassed, the SRCU struct initialized
early in hci_alloc_dev() is never cleaned up, resulting in a leak of
percpu memory.

Fix the leak by explicitly calling cleanup_srcu_struct() in the
fallback (unregistered) branch of bt_host_release() before freeing
the device.

Basic information

Type
unreviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
—
Source code
Not specified
Published (advisory)
2026-06-25 09:31:22 UTC
Updated
2026-07-08 18:32:34 UTC
NVD published
2026-06-25

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.14% 3.44%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
5.5 3.1 —
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-7mrh-gfr7-2p24 ↗
CVE CVE-2026-53252 ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence