CVE-2026-98290: Bluetooth: RFCOMM: avoid socket lock inversion in listener cleanup

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 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: 2026-10-06 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: RFCOMM: avoid socket lock inversion in listener cleanup rfcomm_sock_cleanup_listen() closes unaccepted child sockets through rfcomm_sock_close(), which takes the child socket lock before rfcomm_dlc_close() acquires rfcomm_mutex. The RFCOMM worker takes these locks in reverse order while handling connections and DLC state changes, so lockdep reports a possible deadlock. Close dequeued children without taking their socket lock. The accept queue owns a reference to each child, and bt_accept_dequeue() locks the child while unlinking it and clearing its parent pointer. Dropping the child lock makes it important to prevent a concurrent rfcomm_connect_ind() from enqueueing a new child after cleanup observes an empty queue. Set a listening socket to BT_CLOSED while its lock is still held, before dropping the lock and draining the queue. The state check in rfcomm_connect_ind() then rejects new children once cleanup starts.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 5.15 — 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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