Copyright © 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Moderate 2026-10-18T00:00:00 kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM: fix NULL dereference of dlc->session in RFCOMM_CONNINFO 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H CWE-476

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: RFCOMM: fix NULL dereference of dlc->session in RFCOMM_CONNINFO The RFCOMM_CONNINFO getsockopt handler accepts a socket that is not connected as long as deferred setup is enabled: if (sk->sk_state != BT_CONNECTED && !rfcomm_pi(sk)->dlc->defer_setup) { err = -ENOTCONN; break; } l2cap_sk = rfcomm_pi(sk)->dlc->session->sock->sk; dlc->defer_setup is set in rfcomm_sock_init() when rfcomm_connect_ind() creates a child socket for an incoming connection on a listening socket that has BT_DEFER_SETUP enabled. It is never cleared afterwards. The session, however, can go away underneath it. rfcomm_recv_disc() forces the dlc state before tearing it down: d->state = BT_CLOSED; __rfcomm_dlc_close(d, err); The RFCOMM_DEFER_SETUP early return in __rfcomm_dlc_close() only covers BT_CONNECT, BT_CONFIG, BT_OPEN and BT_CONNECT2, so with the state already BT_CLOSED that switch does not match and the function falls through to rfcomm_dlc_unlink(), which sets d->session = NULL, while d->defer_setup stays 1. A getsockopt(SOL_RFCOMM, RFCOMM_CONNINFO) on the accepted socket after that point therefore skips the -ENOTCONN path -- sk->sk_state is BT_CLOSED, but dlc->defer_setup is still set -- and dereferences the NULL session. No race is needed: once the DISC has been processed, the dereference is unconditional. Reproduced on a KASAN kernel under QEMU with a BR/EDR peer emulated over /dev/vhci: the peer brings up an ACL link, opens L2CAP on the RFCOMM PSM, starts a session and sends SABM for a channel bound with BT_DEFER_SETUP, and sends DISC for that dlci after the socket has been accepted. getsockopt(SOL_RFCOMM, RFCOMM_CONNINFO) on the accepted socket then hits: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000002: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 150 Comm: init Tainted: G B 7.3.0-rc3-g5dd1818b15d9 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) RIP: 0010:rfcomm_sock_getsockopt+0x529/0x780 Call Trace: <TASK> do_sock_getsockopt+0x3ad/0x7d0 __sys_getsockopt+0x10e/0x1b0 __x64_sys_getsockopt+0xc2/0x160 do_syscall_64+0xda/0x4b0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f </TASK> 0x10 is the offset of sock in struct rfcomm_session; rfcomm_sock_getsockopt_old() is inlined into rfcomm_sock_getsockopt(). Commit 43a556b2fd43 ("Bluetooth: RFCOMM: take rfcomm_mutex for the deferred setup accept") fixed the same "a remote DISC clears the session while deferred setup is still flagged" problem in rfcomm_dlc_accept(); this is the remaining instance of it, in the getsockopt path. Deferred setup only leaves a socket usable here once it has reached BT_CONNECT2, so restrict the exception to that state and check that a session is actually present before following it.

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Bluetooth Radio Frequency Communication (RFCOMM) subsystem. This vulnerability allows a local user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing the system. By querying connection options on a socket whose connection was disconnected while deferred setup remained active, the kernel improperly accesses a cleared session pointer, triggering a NULL pointer dereference.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation is restricted to a local denial of service (kernel crash) without compromising system confidentiality or integrity. In typical enterprise server deployments, Bluetooth interfaces and RFCOMM services are rarely enabled or connected, substantially minimizing exposure. Triggering the flaw requires a local user to manipulate an RFCOMM socket configured with deferred setup and issue a connection info request after the session has been closed by a remote peer. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Fix deferred kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Out of support scope kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Fix deferred kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Fix deferred kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Fix deferred kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Fix deferred kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Fix deferred kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Fix deferred kernel-rt Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Fix deferred openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Fix deferred openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 Fix deferred openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98455 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98455 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98455.mbox