{"id":73224,"date":"2025-09-08T19:20:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:20:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:01:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:01:48","slug":"cve-2023-21125-serious-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-local-privilege-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-21125-serious-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-local-privilege-escalation\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2023-21125: Serious Memory Corruption Vulnerability Leading to Local Privilege Escalation<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE-2023-21125 is a critical vulnerability that exists in the Bluetooth interface code of certain systems, specifically in the btif_hh_hsdata_rpt_copy_cb of bta_hh.cc. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead to memory corruption due to a use after free, causing local privilege escalation over Bluetooth. This means that an attacker can gain unauthorized access to the system and increase their privileges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5997-privileged-api-misuse-leads-to-potential-system-compromise-in-beamsec-phishpro\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80805\">potentially compromising the entire system or leading<\/a> to data leakage. This issue is of high concern because it does not require any additional execution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43199-a-high-risk-permissions-issue-enabling-root-privileges-via-malicious-apps\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80978\">privileges<\/a> and does not necessitate user interaction for exploitation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2023-21125<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 8.0)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Bluetooth<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: Local <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48142-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-saad-iqbal-bookify\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80804\">escalation of privilege<\/a> leading to potential system compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1179861366\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Bluetooth Interface | All versions before patch<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability lies within the btif_hh_hsdata_rpt_copy_cb of bta_hh.cc. This function is used to copy handshake data reports in the Bluetooth interface. The problem arises when an object that has been freed is still used in this function, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2022-45134-critical-vulnerability-in-mahara-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82855\">leading to a &#8220;use after free&#8221; vulnerability<\/a>. This can cause memory corruption, which an attacker can exploit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54382-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-cherry-studio\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80942\">execute arbitrary code<\/a> and escalate privileges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2957341824\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The following is a conceptual representation of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">\/\/ hypothetical code\nBluetoothObject *obj = new BluetoothObject();\ndelete obj; \/\/ The object is freed here\n\/\/ Later in the code...\nbtif_hh_hsdata_rpt_copy_cb(obj); \/\/ The freed object is still used here, leading to memory corruption\nobj-&gt;execute(&quot;malicious_code&quot;); \/\/ The attacker exploits the memory corruption to execute arbitrary code<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><strong>How to Mitigate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is by applying the patch provided by the vendor as soon as possible. If this is not immediately possible, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used as a temporary mitigation to monitor and block suspicious activities. However, this should not be considered a permanent solution, as these systems may not be able to fully prevent an exploit of this vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview CVE-2023-21125 is a critical vulnerability that exists in the Bluetooth interface code of certain systems, specifically in the btif_hh_hsdata_rpt_copy_cb of bta_hh.cc. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead to memory corruption due to a use after free, causing local privilege escalation over Bluetooth. This means that an attacker can gain unauthorized access to the system [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-73224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75396,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224\/revisions\/75396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=73224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}