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Advisory severityMedium5.5Vendor: LowRed Hat Linux

Medium [CVE-2026-53252] fix memory leak in error path of hci_alloc_dev

This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53252 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.

CVE-2026-53252 Source published Source updated

VulniPulse record published Record updated

CVE-2026-53252
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxLinux Kernel
Open source advisory

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: fix memory leak in error path of hci_alloc_dev() Early failures in Bluetooth HCI UART configuration leak SRCU percpu memory. When device initialization fails before hci_register_dev() completes, the HCI_UNREGISTER flag is never set.

As a result, when the device reference count reaches zero, bt_host_release() evaluates this flag as false and falls back to a direct kfree(hdev). Because hci_release_dev() is bypassed, the SRCU struct initialized early in hci_alloc_dev() is never cleaned up, resulting in a leak of percpu memory.

Fix the leak by explicitly calling cleanup_srcu_struct() in the fallback (unregistered) branch of bt_host_release() before freeing the device.

Specifically, an issue in the error handling path of the `hci_alloc_dev()` function within the Bluetooth Host Controller Interface (HCI) Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) configuration can lead to a memory leak. This occurs when device initialization fails before proper registration, preventing the necessary cleanup of allocated memory.

The continuous leakage of memory could potentially impact system stability and resource availability. Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Weakness: CWE-911.

Is CVE-2026-53252 exploited?

No exploitation is reported in the sources VulniPulse tracks: CVE-2026-53252 is not in the CISA KEV catalog (checked ) and this advisory does not report exploitation. That is not proof the vulnerability cannot be exploited.

How do I fix CVE-2026-53252?

The advisory VulniPulse tracks names no fixed release. Follow Red Hat's guidance for workarounds and updates.

Confirm against the vendor advisory before you patch.

Affected versions

No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative. Check it before change work.

Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 15 days ago·verify at source

Fixed versions

No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists. Confirm against the vendor advisory.

Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 15 days ago·verify at source

Mitigation

The source record does not include mitigation steps. That does not mean no fix exists. Read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.

Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 15 days ago·verify at source

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