CVE-2023-54038

Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link

published December 24, 2025

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
7.2
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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

Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link

hci_connect_sco currently returns NULL when there is no link (i.e. when

hci_conn_link() returns NULL).

sco_connect() expects an ERR_PTR in case of any error (see line 266 in

sco.c). Thus, hcon set as NULL passes through to sco_conn_add(), which

tries to get hcon->hdev, resulting in dereferencing a NULL pointer as

reported by syzkaller.

The same issue exists for iso_connect_cis() calling hci_connect_cis().

Thus, make hci_connect_sco() and hci_connect_cis() return ERR_PTR

instead of NULL.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00180 · 7.2th percentile
Published
2025-12-24T10:56Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 24 DEC 10:56Z
    Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link
    cvelistv5