From: Mingyu Wang <25181214217@stu.xidian.edu.cn>

A Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability and a subsequent kernel panic were
observed in hci_uart_write_work() due to a race condition between the
initialization of the HCI UART line discipline and concurrent TTY hangup.

This issue was triggered by our custom device emulation and fuzzing
framework (DevGen) on the v6.18 kernel. Due to the highly timing-dependent
nature of this race condition (requiring a precise interleaving of
TIOCVHANGUP and protocol setup), Syzkaller failed to extract a reliable
standalone C reproducer (reproducer is too unreliable: 0.00).

The crash trace is as follows:
  ODEBUG: free active (active state 0) object: ffff88804024e870 object type: work_struct hint: hci_uart_write_work+0x0/0x940
  WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 338273 at lib/debugobjects.c:612 debug_print_object+0x1a2/0x2b0
  ...
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   debug_check_no_obj_freed+0x3ec/0x520
   kfree+0x3f0/0x6c0
   hci_uart_tty_close+0x127/0x2a0
   tty_ldisc_close+0x113/0x1a0
   tty_ldisc_kill+0x8e/0x150
   tty_ldisc_hangup+0x3c1/0x730
   __tty_hangup.part.0+0x3fd/0x8a0
   tty_ioctl+0x120f/0x1690
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18f/0x210
   do_syscall_64+0xcb/0xfa0
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
   </TASK>

The issue arises because the workqueues (init_ready and write_work) are
only cancelled if the HCI_UART_PROTO_READY flag is set. However, during
the protocol initialization phase (HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT), the underlying
protocol may schedule work. If a hangup occurs before the setup completes
and the READY flag is set, hci_uart_tty_close() skips the cancel_work_sync()
calls and proceeds to free the `hu` struct. When the delayed workqueue
executes, it blindly dereferences the freed `hu` struct.

Fix this by moving the cancel_work_sync() calls outside the
HCI_UART_PROTO_READY check, ensuring that any pending works are
unconditionally cancelled before the hci_uart structure is freed.
Note that hu->init_ready and hu->write_work are initialized in
hci_uart_tty_open(), so it is always safe to call cancel_work_sync()
on them in hci_uart_tty_close(), even if the protocol was never
fully attached.

Fixes: 3b799254cf6f ("Bluetooth: hci_uart: Cancel init work before unregistering")

Signed-off-by: Mingyu Wang <25181214217@stu.xidian.edu.cn>
---
Changes in v2:
- Added KASAN/ODEBUG crash trace.
- Added explanation for the absence of a standalone reproducer (highly timing-dependent race condition).
- Added Fixes tag pointing to commit 3b799254cf6f.

 drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c | 10 +++++++---
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c b/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
index 275ea865bc29..566e1c525ee2 100644
--- a/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
+++ b/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
@@ -544,14 +544,18 @@ static void hci_uart_tty_close(struct tty_struct *tty)
 	if (hdev)
 		hci_uart_close(hdev);
 
+	/*
+	 * Always cancel workqueues unconditionally before freeing the hu
+	 * struct, as they might be active during the PROTO_INIT phase.
+	 */
+	cancel_work_sync(&hu->init_ready);
+	cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work);
+
 	if (test_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_READY, &hu->flags)) {
 		percpu_down_write(&hu->proto_lock);
 		clear_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_READY, &hu->flags);
 		percpu_up_write(&hu->proto_lock);
 
-		cancel_work_sync(&hu->init_ready);
-		cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work);
-
 		if (hdev) {
 			if (test_bit(HCI_UART_REGISTERED, &hu->flags))
 				hci_unregister_dev(hdev);
-- 
2.34.1

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 11:17:22PM +0800, w15303746062@163.com wrote:
> From: Mingyu Wang <25181214217@stu.xidian.edu.cn>
> 
> A Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability and a subsequent kernel panic were
> observed in hci_uart_write_work() due to a race condition between the
> initialization of the HCI UART line discipline and concurrent TTY hangup.
> 
> This issue was triggered by our custom device emulation and fuzzing
> framework (DevGen) on the v6.18 kernel. Due to the highly timing-dependent
> nature of this race condition (requiring a precise interleaving of
> TIOCVHANGUP and protocol setup), Syzkaller failed to extract a reliable
> standalone C reproducer (reproducer is too unreliable: 0.00).
> 
> The crash trace is as follows:
>   ODEBUG: free active (active state 0) object: ffff88804024e870 object type: work_struct hint: hci_uart_write_work+0x0/0x940
>   WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 338273 at lib/debugobjects.c:612 debug_print_object+0x1a2/0x2b0
>   ...
>   Call Trace:
>    <TASK>
>    debug_check_no_obj_freed+0x3ec/0x520
>    kfree+0x3f0/0x6c0
>    hci_uart_tty_close+0x127/0x2a0
>    tty_ldisc_close+0x113/0x1a0
>    tty_ldisc_kill+0x8e/0x150
>    tty_ldisc_hangup+0x3c1/0x730
>    __tty_hangup.part.0+0x3fd/0x8a0
>    tty_ioctl+0x120f/0x1690
>    __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18f/0x210
>    do_syscall_64+0xcb/0xfa0
>    entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
>    </TASK>
> 
> The issue arises because the workqueues (init_ready and write_work) are
> only cancelled if the HCI_UART_PROTO_READY flag is set. However, during
> the protocol initialization phase (HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT), the underlying
> protocol may schedule work. If a hangup occurs before the setup completes
> and the READY flag is set, hci_uart_tty_close() skips the cancel_work_sync()
> calls and proceeds to free the `hu` struct. When the delayed workqueue
> executes, it blindly dereferences the freed `hu` struct.
> 
> Fix this by moving the cancel_work_sync() calls outside the
> HCI_UART_PROTO_READY check, ensuring that any pending works are
> unconditionally cancelled before the hci_uart structure is freed.
> Note that hu->init_ready and hu->write_work are initialized in
> hci_uart_tty_open(), so it is always safe to call cancel_work_sync()
> on them in hci_uart_tty_close(), even if the protocol was never
> fully attached.
> 
> Fixes: 3b799254cf6f ("Bluetooth: hci_uart: Cancel init work before unregistering")
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mingyu Wang <25181214217@stu.xidian.edu.cn>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - Added KASAN/ODEBUG crash trace.
> - Added explanation for the absence of a standalone reproducer (highly timing-dependent race condition).
> - Added Fixes tag pointing to commit 3b799254cf6f.
> 
>  drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c | 10 +++++++---
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c b/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
> index 275ea865bc29..566e1c525ee2 100644
> --- a/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
> +++ b/drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c
> @@ -544,14 +544,18 @@ static void hci_uart_tty_close(struct tty_struct *tty)
>  	if (hdev)
>  		hci_uart_close(hdev);
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * Always cancel workqueues unconditionally before freeing the hu
> +	 * struct, as they might be active during the PROTO_INIT phase.
> +	 */
> +	cancel_work_sync(&hu->init_ready);
> +	cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work);
> +
>  	if (test_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_READY, &hu->flags)) {
>  		percpu_down_write(&hu->proto_lock);
>  		clear_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_READY, &hu->flags);
>  		percpu_up_write(&hu->proto_lock);
>  
> -		cancel_work_sync(&hu->init_ready);
> -		cancel_work_sync(&hu->write_work);
> -
>  		if (hdev) {
>  			if (test_bit(HCI_UART_REGISTERED, &hu->flags))
>  				hci_unregister_dev(hdev);
> -- 
> 2.34.1
> 
> 

Hi,

This is the friendly patch-bot of Greg Kroah-Hartman.  You have sent him
a patch that has triggered this response.  He used to manually respond
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created.  Hopefully you will not take offence and will fix the problem
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  Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst file for how to resolve
  this.

If you wish to discuss this problem further, or you have questions about
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thanks,

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