[PATCH v3] Bluetooth: SCO: give the socket its own sco_conn reference

From: Aldo Ariel Panzardo

Date: Sat Jul 25 2026 - 15:53:01 EST


sco_conn_del() drops a reference it does not own. It takes one transient
reference via sco_conn_hold_unless_zero() and releases it with the
sco_conn_put() that follows sco_sock_hold(); the additional put in the
!sk branch releases a second one:

conn = sco_conn_hold_unless_zero(conn);
...
sk = sco_sock_hold(conn);
sco_conn_unlock(conn);
sco_conn_put(conn);

if (!sk) {
sco_conn_put(conn);
return;
}

When close() races the controller's Disconnection Complete, sco_chan_del()
clears conn->sk and drops the socket's reference while sco_conn_del() is
running. sco_conn_del() then sees sk == NULL, its own put drops the count
to zero and frees the conn, and the second put writes to the freed kref:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sco_conn_put.part.0+0x1a/0x190
Write of size 4 at addr ffff8881099dec74 by task kworker/u17:3/413
Workqueue: hci1 hci_rx_work
Call Trace:
sco_conn_put.part.0+0x1a/0x190
hci_disconn_complete_evt+0x1ee/0x3e0
hci_event_packet+0x54a/0x650
hci_rx_work+0x321/0x3d0
Allocated by task 413:
sco_conn_add+0x72/0x1a0
sco_connect_cfm+0x88/0x670
Freed by task 413:
sco_conn_del.isra.0+0x3f/0xf0
hci_disconn_complete_evt+0x1ee/0x3e0
refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.

The root cause is that the socket stores the connection without holding a
reference of its own. __sco_chan_add() does:

sco_pi(sk)->conn = conn;

so the socket borrows whatever reference its caller happened to hold, and
the callers paper over that with ad-hoc holds and puts. Give the socket a
counted reference instead: __sco_chan_add() takes one and it is released
together with the channel (sco_chan_del()) and in sco_sock_destruct().
With the socket holding its own reference, sco_conn_del() no longer needs
the extra put and the redundant hold in sco_conn_ready() goes away.

Making the socket own its reference means the connection is now actually
freed on the error paths of sco_connect() where it used to leak, which in
turn runs sco_conn_free() and its hci_conn_drop(conn->hcon). To keep the
hci_conn accounting balanced, make that ownership explicit as well:
sco_conn_add() consumes one hci_conn reference and the sco_conn owns it for
its lifetime. sco_connect() hands over the reference returned by
hci_connect_sco() and no longer drops it on the error paths;
sco_connect_cfm(), which is not given a reference, takes one with
hci_conn_hold() before handing it to sco_conn_add() (and drops it again if
the allocation fails); and the explicit hci_conn_hold() in sco_conn_ready()
is removed. Every reference then has a single, clear owner.

Fixes: e6720779ae61 ("Bluetooth: SCO: Use kref to track lifetime of sco_conn")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Suggested-by: Pauli Virtanen <pav@xxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Aldo Ariel Panzardo <qwe.aldo@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v3:
- Incorporate Pauli Virtanen's review: make sco_conn own one hci_conn
reference for its whole lifetime -- sco_conn_add() consumes an hci_conn
reference, sco_connect() no longer drops hcon on its error paths,
sco_connect_cfm() holds one before sco_conn_add(), and the hci_conn_hold()
in sco_conn_ready() is removed. This avoids the double hci_conn_drop() on
sco_connect()'s error paths that v2 would otherwise introduce.
- Keep the sco_pi(conn->sk)->conn = NULL clearing in sco_conn_free(). v2
removed it as unreachable, but KASAN testing of close() racing the
Disconnection Complete showed that dropping it reintroduces a
use-after-free on the sco_sock_release() path, so it is retained.
- Drop the hcon reference in sco_connect_cfm() when sco_conn_add() fails,
so the allocation-failure path does not leak it.
v2:
- Make the socket own its sco_conn reference rather than only deleting the
extra put, per Pauli Virtanen's review.

Testing: on v7.2-rc4 with KASAN and a /dev/vhci reproducer that races
close() of an SCO socket against an injected Disconnection Complete, the
unpatched kernel hits the refcount_t underflow / use-after-free above
within a few thousand iterations; with this patch the sco_conn_del()
over-put on the Disconnection Complete path no longer reproduces.

net/bluetooth/sco.c | 22 +++++++++++++---------
1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/bluetooth/sco.c b/net/bluetooth/sco.c
index fcc597be5bbd..aa9f61a748ab 100644
--- a/net/bluetooth/sco.c
+++ b/net/bluetooth/sco.c
@@ -188,6 +188,9 @@ static void sco_sock_clear_timer(struct sock *sk)
}

/* ---- SCO connections ---- */
+/* Consumes a reference on @hcon, which the returned sco_conn owns until it is
+ * freed. On failure (NULL return) the reference is left for the caller to drop.
+ */
static struct sco_conn *sco_conn_add(struct hci_conn *hcon)
{
struct sco_conn *conn = hcon->sco_data;
@@ -198,6 +201,9 @@ static struct sco_conn *sco_conn_add(struct hci_conn *hcon)
sco_conn_lock(conn);
conn->hcon = hcon;
sco_conn_unlock(conn);
+ } else {
+ /* conn already owns a reference on hcon */
+ hci_conn_drop(hcon);
}
return conn;
}
@@ -265,10 +271,8 @@ static void sco_conn_del(struct hci_conn *hcon, int err)
sco_conn_unlock(conn);
sco_conn_put(conn);

- if (!sk) {
- sco_conn_put(conn);
+ if (!sk)
return;
- }

/* Kill socket */
lock_sock(sk);
@@ -283,7 +287,7 @@ static void __sco_chan_add(struct sco_conn *conn, struct sock *sk,
{
BT_DBG("conn %p", conn);

- sco_pi(sk)->conn = conn;
+ sco_pi(sk)->conn = sco_conn_hold(conn);
conn->sk = sk;

if (parent)
@@ -366,15 +370,15 @@ static int sco_connect(struct sock *sk)
*/
if (sk->sk_state != BT_OPEN && sk->sk_state != BT_BOUND) {
release_sock(sk);
- hci_conn_drop(hcon);
+ sco_conn_put(conn);
err = -EBADFD;
goto unlock;
}

err = sco_chan_add(conn, sk, NULL);
+ sco_conn_put(conn);
if (err) {
release_sock(sk);
- hci_conn_drop(hcon);
goto unlock;
}

@@ -1439,8 +1443,6 @@ static void sco_conn_ready(struct sco_conn *conn)
bacpy(&sco_pi(sk)->src, &conn->hcon->src);
bacpy(&sco_pi(sk)->dst, &conn->hcon->dst);

- sco_conn_hold(conn);
- hci_conn_hold(conn->hcon);
__sco_chan_add(conn, sk, parent);

if (test_bit(BT_SK_DEFER_SETUP, &bt_sk(parent)->flags))
@@ -1496,10 +1498,12 @@ static void sco_connect_cfm(struct hci_conn *hcon, __u8 status)
if (!status) {
struct sco_conn *conn;

- conn = sco_conn_add(hcon);
+ conn = sco_conn_add(hci_conn_hold(hcon));
if (conn) {
sco_conn_ready(conn);
sco_conn_put(conn);
+ } else {
+ hci_conn_drop(hcon);
}
} else
sco_conn_del(hcon, bt_to_errno(status));
--
2.43.0