CVE-2026-13213: Bluetooth HAS: NULL-pointer dereference DoS when a bonded peer reconnects before bt_has_register

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-08-24 · updated 2026-10-12
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

The Hearing Access Service (HAS) GATT server in subsys/bluetooth/audio/has.c installs a connection-callback set unconditionally via BT_CONN_CB_DEFINE, so security_changed() runs for every connection that establishes security even before the application has called bt_has_register(). The service attribute pointers hearing_aid_features_attr, preset_control_point_attr, and active_preset_index_attr remain NULL until bt_has_register() resolves them and sets has.registered. With CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS, settings_set_cb() restores each bonded client's persisted context at boot and unconditionally sets context->flags to BONDED_CLIENT_INIT_FLAGS (non-zero). When a previously bonded peer reconnects and re-establishes security during the startup window before bt_has_register() has been called, security_changed() sees the non-zero flags and schedules notify_work_handler, which calls bt_gatt_is_subscribed() with a still-NULL attribute pointer. That triggers an assertion (__ASSERT(attr, ...) in bt_gatt_is_subscribed()), or a NULL dereference of attr->uuid when assertions are compiled out. The result is a remotely triggerable (Bluetooth, adjacent) crash of the HAS peripheral. Exploitation requires the peer to have previously bonded with the device and to reconnect within the boot-time race window before the application registers the service; a peer that reconnects persistently can prolong the outage. Impact is denial of service only, with no memory corruption or information disclosure. The fix adds an early if (!has.registered) { return; } guard in security_changed(), so no notification work is scheduled until the GATT service is registered and its attribute pointers are valid.

Affected products

zephyrproject zephyr: from 3.6.0 before 4.4.2 — fixed in 4.4.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: zephyrproject zephyr 4.4.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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