Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12 Bluetooth hci_alloc_dev memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12. It has been classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function hci_alloc_dev of the component Bluetooth. Performing a manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-53252. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12. This affects the function hci_alloc_dev of the component Bluetooth. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

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.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-53252 since 06/09/2026. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 5.15.210, 6.1.176, 6.6.143, 6.12.94, 6.18.36 or 7.0.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5b7dfca6f852e6b9d809fd0263b5427cc9fb33fd/c016118b9e51eeaf5bc93850d4c455a3b583c0aa/0622e527a31d4b44737fed5c1a2ac1fc2cfb5184/bc2efe73c194a74839d7cf57b63880d97e21d309/ce4b4cac3c5749b6aa75e62e2991ae2263f2f889/f82799407a50af7bcacacf09cc9b279af8fe9b81/37b3009bf5976e8ab77c8b9a9bc3bbd7ff49e37f is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.209
• 6.1.175
• 6.6.142
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.12.78
• 6.12.79
• 6.12.80
• 6.12.81
• 6.12.82
• 6.12.83
• 6.12.84
• 6.12.85
• 6.12.86
• 6.12.87
• 6.12.88
• 6.12.89
• 6.12.90
• 6.12.91
• 6.12.92
• 6.12.93
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9
• 7.0.10
• 7.0.11
• 7.0.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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