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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2021-47038 json

Bluetooth: avoid deadlock between hci_dev->lock and socket lock

published 2024-02-28 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33686

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

Bluetooth: avoid deadlock between hci_dev->lock and socket lock

Commit eab2404ba798 ("Bluetooth: Add BT_PHY socket option") added a dependency between socket lock and hci_dev->lock that could lead to deadlock.

It turns out that hci_conn_get_phy() is not in any way relying on hdev being immutable during the runtime of this function, neither does it even look at any of the members of hdev, and as such there is no need to hold that lock.

This fixes the lockdep splat below:

====================================================== WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected 5.12.0-rc1-00026-g73d464503354 #10 Not tainted ------------------------------------------------------ bluetoothd/1118 is trying to acquire lock: ffff8f078383c078 (&hdev->lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth]

but task is already holding lock: ffff8f07e831d920 (sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: l2cap_sock_getsockopt+0x8b/0x610

which lock already depends on the new lock.

the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

-> #3 (sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP){+.+.}-{0:0}: lock_sock_nested+0x72/0xa0 l2cap_sock_ready_cb+0x18/0x70 [bluetooth] l2cap_config_rsp+0x27a/0x520 [bluetooth] l2cap_sig_channel+0x658/0x1330 [bluetooth] l2cap_recv_frame+0x1ba/0x310 [bluetooth] hci_rx_work+0x1cc/0x640 [bluetooth] process_one_work+0x244/0x5f0 worker_thread+0x3c/0x380 kthread+0x13e/0x160 ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30

-> #2 (&chan->lock#2/1){+.+.}-{3:3}: __mutex_lock+0xa3/0xa10 l2cap_chan_connect+0x33a/0x940 [bluetooth] l2cap_sock_connect+0x141/0x2a0 [bluetooth] __sys_connect+0x9b/0xc0 __x64_sys_connect+0x16/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

-> #1 (&conn->chan_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}: __mutex_lock+0xa3/0xa10 l2cap_chan_connect+0x322/0x940 [bluetooth] l2cap_sock_connect+0x141/0x2a0 [bluetooth] __sys_connect+0x9b/0xc0 __x64_sys_connect+0x16/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

-> #0 (&hdev->lock){+.+.}-{3:3}: __lock_acquire+0x147a/0x1a50 lock_acquire+0x277/0x3d0 __mutex_lock+0xa3/0xa10 hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth] l2cap_sock_getsockopt+0x5a9/0x610 [bluetooth] __sys_getsockopt+0xcc/0x200 __x64_sys_getsockopt+0x20/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

other info that might help us debug this:

Chain exists of: &hdev->lock --> &chan->lock#2/1 --> sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP

Possible unsafe locking scenario:

CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP); lock(&chan->lock#2/1); lock(sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP); lock(&hdev->lock);

*** DEADLOCK ***

1 lock held by bluetoothd/1118: #0: ffff8f07e831d920 (sk_lock-AF_BLUETOOTH-BTPROTO_L2CAP){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: l2cap_sock_getsockopt+0x8b/0x610 [bluetooth]

stack backtrace: CPU: 3 PID: 1118 Comm: bluetoothd Not tainted 5.12.0-rc1-00026-g73d464503354 #10 Hardware name: LENOVO 20K5S22R00/20K5S22R00, BIOS R0IET38W (1.16 ) 05/31/2017 Call Trace: dump_stack+0x7f/0xa1 check_noncircular+0x105/0x120 ? __lock_acquire+0x147a/0x1a50 __lock_acquire+0x147a/0x1a50 lock_acquire+0x277/0x3d0 ? hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth] ? __lock_acquire+0x2e1/0x1a50 ? lock_is_held_type+0xb4/0x120 ? hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth] __mutex_lock+0xa3/0xa10 ? hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth] ? lock_acquire+0x277/0x3d0 ? mark_held_locks+0x49/0x70 ? mark_held_locks+0x49/0x70 ? hci_conn_get_phy+0x1c/0x150 [bluetooth] hci_conn_get_phy+0x ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.37, 5.11.21, 5.12.4, 5.13
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.10.38-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47038

  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS, Enterprise Storage 7.1 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +5 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-preempt SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +3 more 5.3.18-150300.59.158.1.150300.18.92.5
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.2, SLE Micro 5.1 5.3.18-150300.166.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1489-1SUSE-SU-2024:1465-1

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-2021-47038 updated cvss 5.7

kernel: Bluetooth: avoid deadlock between hci_dev->lock and socket lock

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

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.