Linux EUVD-2026-85938

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

Bluetooth: hci_core: use skb_get() instead of skb_clone() for req_skb

BT enable fails intermittently with -ETIMEDOUT (-110). The kernel log shows the HCI Read Local Version command was sent and the firmware replied with status 0x00 (logged by hci_req_cmd_complete() BT_DBG), but the waiter in __hci_cmd_sync_sk() never woke up and timed out after 10 s:

bluetooth hci0: Opcode 0xfc00 // __hci_cmd_sync_sk bluetooth hci0: opcode 0xfc00 plen 1 // hci_cmd_sync_add bluetooth hci0: skb len 4 // hci_cmd_sync_alloc bluetooth hci0: length 1 // hci_req_sync_run Bluetooth: hci0 cmd_cnt 1 cmd queued 1 // hci_cmd_work Bluetooth: hci0 type 1 len 4 // hci_send_frame Bluetooth: opcode 0xfc00 status 0x00 // hci_req_cmd_complete <-- req_skb NULL: req_complete_skb not set, hci_cmd_sync_complete() never called, req_status stays HCI_REQ_PEND --> <-- 10 s later: wait_event_interruptible_timeout expires --> bluetooth hci0: end: err -110 // __hci_cmd_sync_sk

The root cause is that hci_send_cmd_sync() clones the sent command into hdev->req_skb so that hci_req_cmd_complete() can locate the registered completion callback. Under memory pressure this skb_clone() fails, leaving hdev->req_skb NULL. The firmware reply is received and processed, but hci_req_cmd_complete() finds NULL req_skb, so hci_cmd_sync_complete() is never called, req_status stays HCI_REQ_PEND, and the waiter times out with -ETIMEDOUT.

req_skb is only used to read bt_cb(skb)->hci callbacks and opcode -- it is never modified. Replace skb_clone() with skb_get(), which simply increments the reference count of hdev->sent_cmd without allocating new memory and therefore cannot fail.

This issue was first observed as a use-after-free in ttyport_close() when ttyport_open() failed, which was investigated in an earlier patch series [1]. That investigation led to the discovery of the true root cause described above.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250430111617.1151390-1-quic_cxin@quicinc.com/