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Zephyr RTOS: Out-of-bounds read and write in Bluetooth Classic RFCOMM

CVE-2026-77685High 8.3

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Summary

Zephyr RTOS builds with Bluetooth Classic RFCOMM enabled contain an integer underflow in the handler for the RFCOMM TEST command. A nearby, unpaired attacker can send a single crafted frame on the multiplexer control channel and receive up to 255 bytes of adjacent memory, and the out-of-bounds write can crash the Bluetooth host. No authentication or user interaction is required, but the attacker must be within Bluetooth radio range of a connectable device.

Affected

  • Zephyr versions 1.7.0 up to, but not including, 4.5.0 (per the CVE record; default configuration unaffected)
  • Zephyr v4.3.x builds with CONFIG_BT_GOEP enabled are also affected by the residual write after fix 1
  • Unknown: whether v4.4.x and the LTS branch (v3.7) receive fix 2 as a backport

Fixed in

  • Fix 1: commit 0040ef781e1d (#115768) removes the underflow and over-read, but does not close the out-of-bounds write
  • Fix 2: commit 214530895dd3 (#118293) checks tailroom on every RFCOMM PDU allocation and closes the write
  • Upgrade to Zephyr 4.5.0 or later, which includes both fixes
  • v4.3.2 contains fix 1 only and will not receive fix 2

Workaround

  • Disable CONFIG_BT_RFCOMM if RFCOMM profiles (SPP, HFP, HSP, GOEP) are not needed (not confirmed by a source)
  • Disable Bluetooth Classic discoverability and connectability on devices where it is not required

Exploitation

  • No public exploit code has been confirmed at this time.
  • Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog according to one aggregator; not verified directly.
  • No known exploitation in the wild, but this cannot be confirmed as absent.

Our recommendation

  • Inventory devices running Zephyr with Bluetooth Classic or RFCOMM profiles and record their firmware versions.
  • Ask device vendors for firmware based on Zephyr 4.5.0 or later, or a backport that includes fix 2.
  • Disable Bluetooth Classic or discoverability on devices where it is not required.
  • Re-check the vendor advisory GHSA-mhhp-8w67-cggv and NVD once analysis is complete.

Public exploits

PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.

Research sources

Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 11 Nov 2026, 01:16.

Original description (NVD)

The RFCOMM multiplexer control-channel handler in subsys/bluetooth/host/classic/rfcomm.c computed the echo length for a BT_RFCOMM_TEST command as buf->len - 1 and passed it to rfcomm_send_test(), whose length parameter is a uint8_t. A malformed but FCS-valid UIH frame on DLCI 0 can leave buf->len == 0 after rfcomm_handle_msg() pulls the two-byte MCC header, so buf->len - 1 underflows and narrows to 255. rfcomm_send_test() then copies 255 bytes out of a receive buffer that holds no remaining valid data, and appends them to an outgoing L2CAP PDU allocated with only CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_MTU (253 by default for CONFIG_BT_CLASSIC) bytes of tailroom. The source read runs past the end of the ACL receive buffer into adjacent buffers of the same net_buf pool, and the destination copy overruns the transmit buffer by about eight bytes; net_buf_add_mem() performs no runtime bounds check in ordinary builds, where the underlying __ASSERT_NO_MSG() is compiled out. The trigger is a single five-byte RFCOMM frame on the multiplexer control channel, which is processed as soon as the L2CAP channel for PSM 3 is established — before any DLC exists and independent of RFCOMM session state. bt_rfcomm_init() registers that L2CAP server with .sec_level = BT_SECURITY_L1, which l2cap_br_conn_security() accepts without any link key from a peer that does not claim host Secure Simple Pairing support, so an unpaired BR/EDR device in radio range of a connectable target with CONFIG_BT_RFCOMM enabled (SPP, HFP, HSP, GOEP and similar profiles all enable it) can reach the defect. The resulting 255-byte TEST response is transmitted back to the attacker, disclosing roughly 255 bytes of adjacent stack/pool memory — including the contents of neighbouring receive buffers, which an attacker can prime with earlier packets — and the accompanying out-of-bounds write corrupts memory following the transmit buffer, which can crash the Bluetooth host. The request is trivially repeatable, so both the disclosure and the corruption can be driven at will. Two fixes are needed, and the first on its own does not close the out-of-bounds write. Fix 1 (0040ef781e1d, #115768) strips the FCS byte in rfcomm_recv() and echoes buf->len, rejecting anything over UINT8_MAX, which removes the underflow and the over-read. But rfcomm_make_uih_msg() still allocates the response with bt_l2cap_create_pdu() and never compares the requested length with the buffer's tailroom, so a well-formed TEST command carrying a pattern of about 248 bytes or more still builds a response (3-byte frame header, 2-byte message header, pattern, FCS) larger than the 253 bytes available. A pattern that long can only be received when the RFCOMM L2CAP receive MTU (CONFIG_BT_RFCOMM_L2CAP_MTU, which defaults to CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_RX_SIZE) exceeds CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_MTU. The plain BR/EDR defaults (200 against 253) cannot reach it, but from v4.3.0 enabling CONFIG_BT_GOEP raises CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_RX_SIZE to 264 (265 from v4.4.0), so GOEP builds with only fix 1 applied still overrun the transmit buffer by up to eight bytes. This includes v4.3.2, the last v4.3 release, which carries fix 1 but will not receive fix 2. Fix 2 (214530895dd3, #118293) checks the tailroom on every RFCOMM PDU allocation and closes this residual write.

NVD references (3)

Sources

The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:

This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.

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