Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-53208

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.259 / 5.15.210 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available 8 weeks old

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
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: L2CAP: reject BR/EDR signaling packets over MTUsig net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c:l2cap_sig_channel() accepts BR/EDR signaling packets up to the channel MTU and dispatches each command without enforcing the signaling MTU (MTUsig). A Bluetooth BR/EDR peer within radio range can send a fixed-channel CID 0x0001 packet that is larger than MTUsig and contains many L2CAP_ECHO_REQ commands before pairing. In a real-radio stock-kernel run, one 681-byte signaling packet containing 168 zero-length ECHO_REQ commands made the target transmit 168 ECHO_RSP frames over about 220 ms. Impact: a Bluetooth BR/EDR peer within radio range, before pairing, can force 168 ECHO_RSP frames from one 681-byte fixed-channel signaling packet containing packed ECHO_REQ commands. Define Linux's BR/EDR signaling MTU as the spec minimum of 48 bytes and reject any larger signaling packet with one L2CAP_COMMAND_REJECT_RSP carrying L2CAP_REJ_MTU_EXCEEDED before any command is dispatched. The Bluetooth Core spec wording for MTUExceeded says the reject identifier shall match the first request command in the packet, and that packets containing only responses shall be silently discarded. Linux intentionally deviates from that prescription: silently discarding desynchronizes the peer because the remote stack never learns its responses were dropped, and locating the first request command requires walking command headers past MTUsig, i.e. processing bytes from a packet we have already decided is too large to process. We therefore always emit one reject and use the identifier from the first command header, a single fixed-offset byte read. The unrestricted BR/EDR signaling parser and ECHO_REQ response path both trace to the initial git import; no later introducing commit is available for a Fixes tag.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 2.6.12.1, < 5.10.259>= 5.11, < 5.15.210>= 5.16, < 6.1.176>= 6.2, < 6.6.143>= 6.7, < 6.12.94>= 6.13, < 6.18.36>= 6.19, < 7.0.13= 2.6.12= 7.1

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 5.10.259 / 5.15.210 / 6.1.176 or later
Fixed in 5.10.2595.15.2106.1.176
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to Linux kernel 5.10.259+, 5.15.210+, 6.1.176+, 6.6.143+, or the latest stable kernel (6.7+)

  1. 1. Identify the current running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. 2. Determine which kernel branch your current version belongs to (e.g., 5.10.x, 5.15.x, 6.1.x, 6.6.x)
  3. 3. For kernel 5.10.x: upgrade to version 5.10.259 or later
  4. 4. For kernel 5.15.x: upgrade to version 5.15.210 or later
  5. 5. For kernel 6.1.x: upgrade to version 6.1.176 or later
  6. 6. For kernel 6.6.x: upgrade to version 6.6.143 or later
  7. 7. For newer kernels (6.7+): upgrade to the latest stable release which includes the fix
  8. 8. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuilding out-of-tree kernel modules; ensure driver compatibility with the new kernel version before upgrading production systems

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 $1,600. 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-2026-53208 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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