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BluezApplication

CVE-2023-50230

HIGH · 8.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.70 or later.
See remediation →
83/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
BlueZ Phone Book Access Profile Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows network-adjacent attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of BlueZ. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must connect to a malicious Bluetooth device. The specific flaw exists within the handling of the Phone Book Access profile. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a fixed-length heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of root. Was ZDI-CAN-20938.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-122

Data overflows a buffer allocated on the heap, corrupting neighbouring heap structures and allocator metadata that a patient attacker can groom into control of execution. It is subtler than a stack overflow but just as dangerous. The fix is validating lengths before every write and using safe allocators and bounded operations.

General guidance for the heap-based buffer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
BluezApplication
Affected:>= 5.66, < 5.70

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.70 or later
Fixed in 5.70
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

BlueZ 5.70

  1. 1. Identify the current BlueZ version installed on the system using 'bluetoothd --version' or checking package manager (e.g., 'dpkg -l | grep bluez', 'rpm -qa | grep bluez')
  2. 2. Stop the Bluetooth service: 'sudo systemctl stop bluetooth' or 'sudo service bluetooth stop'
  3. 3. Upgrade BlueZ to version 5.70 or later. On Debian/Ubuntu: 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install bluez'. On RHEL/Fedora: 'sudo dnf update bluez'. On Arch: 'sudo pacman -Syu bluez'. From source: download from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/bluetooth/ and compile per standard build instructions.
  4. 4. Verify the installed version meets the fix (>= 5.70): 'bluetoothd --version'
  5. 5. Restart the Bluetooth service: 'sudo systemctl start bluetooth' or 'sudo service bluetooth start'
  6. 6. If using systemd, ensure the service is enabled: 'sudo systemctl enable bluetooth'
Caveat Major version upgrades may introduce API/ABI changes affecting third-party Bluetooth applications; test in staging if running custom Bluetooth software

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-50230 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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