NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-debug-devel-matched package, versions <0:5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on CentOS security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.03% (8th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-CENTOS9-KERNELDEBUGDEVELMATCHED-14713005
  • published26 Dec 2025
  • disclosed24 Dec 2025

Introduced: 24 Dec 2025

CVE-2023-54038  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Centos:9 kernel-debug-devel-matched to version 0:5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-debug-devel-matched package and not the kernel-debug-devel-matched package as distributed by Centos. See How to fix? for Centos:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link

hci_connect_sco currently returns NULL when there is no link (i.e. when hci_conn_link() returns NULL).

sco_connect() expects an ERR_PTR in case of any error (see line 266 in sco.c). Thus, hcon set as NULL passes through to sco_conn_add(), which tries to get hcon->hdev, resulting in dereferencing a NULL pointer as reported by syzkaller.

The same issue exists for iso_connect_cis() calling hci_connect_cis().

Thus, make hci_connect_sco() and hci_connect_cis() return ERR_PTR instead of NULL.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1