CVE-2026-90254: Bluetooth: hci_sync: free the advertising instance on the failure and cancel paths

Severity: unknown
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: 2026-09-17 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_sync: free the advertising instance on the failure and cancel paths adv_timeout_expire() hands a kmalloc()ed instance byte to hci_cmd_sync_queue() with a NULL destroy callback, and only adv_timeout_expire_sync() frees it. That leaks on two paths: - the return value is not checked, and hci_cmd_sync_queue() does not take ownership when it fails (-ENETDOWN, -ENODEV, -ENOMEM); - a cancelled entry is not released, as _hci_cmd_sync_cancel_entry() does not free entry->data when there is no destroy callback. hci_cmd_sync_clear() cancels every pending entry when the controller is unregistered. Free the buffer from a destroy callback, and in the caller when the entry could not be queued at all.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 6.1 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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