Bluetooth devices supporting BR/EDR v5.2 and earlier are vulnerable to impersonation attacks

published 2020-05-19 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-2598

cvss: 5.4; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 2.4%; EPSS 2.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 84%
public exploits: 0; none known

Legacy pairing and secure-connections pairing authentication in Bluetooth BR/EDR Core Specification v5.2 and earlier may allow an unauthenticated user to complete authentication without pairing credentials via adjacent access. An unauthenticated, adjacent attacker could impersonate a Bluetooth BR/EDR master or slave to pair with a previously paired remote device to successfully complete the authentication procedure without knowing the link key.

Patch / fix

distros 4

ubuntu red hat suse opensuse

linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-197.229
linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-129.132
linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-56.62
linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1118.132
linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1091.96
linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1030.31
linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1091.104~16.04.1
linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1030.32

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-10135

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

kernel RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
bpftool RHEL 9 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5
libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:9315

kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.222.1
kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.222.1
kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +2 more 4.12.14-122.222.1
kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.222.1
kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP2-LTSS, SLE Live Patching 15 SP2 +2 more 5.3.18-150200.24.197.1
kernel-azure SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-16.191.1
kernel-syms-azure SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-16.191.1
kernel-source-azure SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-16.191.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:2561-1 SUSE-SU-2024:2365-1 SUSE-SU-2024:2360-1 SUSE-SU-2020:2623-1 SUSE-SU-2020:2610-1 SUSE-SU-2020:2605-1

kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.14.6-1.4
kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 6.6.17-1.1
kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
kernel-syms-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
kernel-rt_debug openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
kernel-source-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
dpdk openSUSE Leap 15.2 19.11.1-lp152.2.5.1
drbd openSUSE Leap 15.2 9.0.22~1+git.fe2b5983-lp152.2.2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10728-1 openSUSE-SU-2024:13704-1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0242-1 openSUSE-SU-2020:1236-1 openSUSE-SU-2020:1153-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-10135 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.4

kernel: bluetooth: BR/EDR Bluetooth Impersonation Attacks (BIAS)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
affected: workaround, no fix available
Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, rtla 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-tools 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, python3-perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:9315
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-cross-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 84% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

seclists.org http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Jun/5 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	5.4	CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD	3.1	5.4	CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD	2.0	4.8	AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

Affected products

Bluetooth BR/EDR

Classification

Weakness

CWE-757 Selection of Less-Secure Algorithm During Negotiation
CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing

References

seclists.org /fulldisclosure/2020/Jun/5
mailing-list, exploit, third-party-advisory
lists.opensuse.org /opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00009.html
vendor-advisory, broken-link, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.opensuse.org /opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00047.html
vendor-advisory, broken-link, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
bluetooth.com /learn-about-bluetooth/bluetooth-technology/bluetooth-security/bias-vulnerability/
vendor-advisory
kb.cert.org /vuls/id/647177/
third-party-advisory, us-government-resource
francozappa.github.io /about-bias/
third-party-advisory
packetstormsecurity.com /files/157922/Bluetooth-Impersonation-Attack-BIAS-Proof-Of-Concept.html
third-party-advisory, vdb-entry

Sources

CVE List CVE-2020-10135
NVD CVE-2020-10135

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary