CVE-2026-101184 in HarmonyOS
Summary
by MITRE • 11/02/2026
Permission control vulnerability in the Bluetooth module. Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect availability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/02/2026
The identified security flaw resides within the permission management subsystem of the device's Bluetooth protocol stack, representing a critical gap in access control mechanisms that govern interactions between system components and external wireless peripherals. This vulnerability stems from an insufficient validation of user privileges or process identities when handling incoming Bluetooth requests, specifically those related to pairing, connection establishment, or service discovery operations. In a properly secured implementation, the operating system should enforce strict separation of duties, ensuring that only authorized applications with explicit permissions can invoke low-level Bluetooth APIs or modify critical configuration states. However, in this instance, the architectural design fails to adequately verify whether the requesting entity possesses the necessary rights before executing sensitive commands, thereby allowing unprivileged processes or potentially malicious actors leveraging local execution capabilities to bypass intended security boundaries.
From a technical perspective, the core issue is classified under CWE-269, which denotes Improper Privilege Control, indicating that the software does not properly restrict actions based on user roles or system privileges. The flaw likely involves a logic error where default permissions are overly permissive, or where authentication tokens associated with Bluetooth sessions are not rigorously checked against current access control lists before granting elevated operations. This could manifest as an ability for a lower-privileged application to trigger high-level functions such as disabling the radio interface entirely, modifying persistent pairing records that affect system integrity, or initiating denial-of-service conditions by flooding the stack with malformed connection requests that exhaust internal resources due to lack of rate limiting or validation checks tied to user identity.
The operational impact of exploiting this vulnerability is primarily centered on service availability rather than data confidentiality or integrity in its immediate execution phase. An attacker who successfully leverages this flaw can disrupt normal Bluetooth functionality, leading to a denial-of-service condition for the device and any connected peripherals. This could involve forcing the Bluetooth module into an error state that requires a system reboot to restore connectivity, effectively rendering wireless features unusable until manual intervention occurs. In environments where Bluetooth is critical for operational continuity, such as industrial IoT devices or healthcare monitoring systems, this disruption can have significant downstream consequences, including loss of telemetry data transmission or inability to receive urgent alerts. While the primary impact is availability, the underlying weakness could potentially be chained with other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges or manipulate state in ways that compromise broader system security posture over time.
To mitigate this risk, developers must implement robust access control checks at every entry point within the Bluetooth module's API surface. This involves ensuring that all function calls originating from user-space applications are validated against a comprehensive policy engine that verifies both the identity of the caller and their specific permissions for the requested operation. Additionally, implementing principle of least privilege ensures that default configurations restrict high-risk actions to system-level processes only. Security hardening measures should also include rigorous input validation on Bluetooth parameters to prevent resource exhaustion attacks, alongside regular code audits focused on permission handling logic. For end-users, keeping firmware updated with vendor-provided patches is essential, as these updates typically contain the necessary fixes for privilege escalation and access control flaws within communication stacks.