CVE-2026-65932 in BT122
Summary
by MITRE • 08/13/2026
The BT122 module stops advertising after receiving a plaintext 'pause enceryption response' message resulting in a denial of service. See vulnerability B-E2 in the related paper below.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/13/2026
The vulnerability described involves a critical flaw in the BT122 Bluetooth module where the device ceases advertising operations upon receipt of a plaintext pause encryption response message, leading to a complete denial of service condition. This represents a fundamental failure in the module's protocol handling mechanism, where legitimate control messages intended for encryption management are improperly processed, causing the device to terminate its advertising behavior entirely. The vulnerability demonstrates a lack of proper input validation and error handling within the Bluetooth stack implementation, creating an attack surface that can be exploited by adversaries to disrupt wireless communication services.
The technical implementation flaw stems from inadequate message processing logic within the BT122 module's encryption management subsystem. When the module receives what it interprets as a pause encryption response command, the system fails to properly validate the message authenticity or context before executing the shutdown sequence. This behavior aligns with CWE-248, an unspecified exception handling vulnerability where an application fails to properly handle exceptions or error conditions, and may also relate to CWE-362, which addresses concurrent execution manipulation through race conditions in security-critical operations. The module's architecture appears to lack proper state management controls that would prevent a single invalid message from cascading into system-wide advertising cessation.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant service disruption potential for any system relying on BT122 modules for wireless communication. The denial of service affects the availability aspect of the security triad by preventing devices from advertising their presence in Bluetooth networks, which could compromise IoT device connectivity, wireless sensor network functionality, or any application requiring periodic advertising for discovery mechanisms. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to systematically disrupt Bluetooth services across multiple devices, potentially affecting industrial control systems, smart building infrastructure, or consumer electronics that depend on proper advertising behavior for network coordination.
The vulnerability also presents implications within the ATT&CK framework under the T1499 category for Network Denial of Service, where adversaries can leverage protocol-level weaknesses to create persistent availability issues. The plaintext nature of the triggering message suggests poor security design practices and inadequate encryption or authentication mechanisms for control commands, making this attack vector particularly accessible. Implementation of proper message validation, authentication checks, and robust state recovery mechanisms would mitigate this vulnerability by ensuring that pause encryption commands are properly authenticated before execution. Additionally, implementing redundant advertising mechanisms or fail-safe states could prevent complete service termination while maintaining the security benefits of proper encryption management protocols.
Mitigation strategies should focus on strengthening input validation procedures within the BT122 module firmware to ensure that control messages undergo proper authentication and context verification before triggering system state changes. Security implementations must incorporate proper exception handling patterns that prevent single-message failures from causing cascading system shutdowns, aligning with established security practices for embedded systems. Network administrators should consider implementing monitoring solutions that can detect advertising cessation events as potential indicators of exploitation attempts, while firmware updates should be prioritized to address the underlying protocol processing flaws that enable this denial of service condition to occur in the first place.