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CVE-2020-15238

Local privilege escalation Blueman

7.1 HighPublic exploitFix available

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

Exploit likelihood

4.59%Down 0.7 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 7.1

Local privilege escalation Blueman

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
CVE-2020-15238
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L
Weakness
CWE-74
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-7263 7.1

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
EUVD-2020-7263
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L
Updated
2026-11-03
NVD 7.1

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
CVE-2020-15238
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
6.9 MediumAV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Weakness
CWE-74, CWE-88
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.0

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
CVE-2020-15238
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2020-15238 7.0

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2020-15238
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2020-15238 7.0

Blueman is a GTK+ Bluetooth Manager. In Blueman before 2.1.4, the DhcpClient method of the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism is prone to an argument injection vulnerability. The impact highly depends on the system configuration. If Polkit-1 is disabled and for versions lower than 2.0.6, any local user can possibly exploit this. If Polkit-1 is enabled for version 2.0.6 and later, a possible attacker needs to be allowed to use the org.blueman.dhcp.client action. That is limited to users in the wheel group in the shipped rules file that do have the privileges anyway. On systems with ISC DHCP client (dhclient), attackers can pass arguments to ip link with the interface name that can e.g. be used to bring down an interface or add an arbitrary XDP/BPF program. On systems with dhcpcd and without ISC DHCP client, attackers can even run arbitrary scripts by passing -c/path/to/script as an interface name. Patches are included in 2.1.4 and master that change the DhcpClient D-Bus method(s) to accept BlueZ network object paths instead of network interface names. A backport to 2.0(.8) is also available. As a workaround, make sure that Polkit-1-support is enabled and limit privileges for the org.blueman.dhcp.client action to users that are able to run arbitrary commands as root anyway in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/blueman.rules.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2020-15238
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 3.1
7.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L
Updated
2026-11-02
Show 5 moreShow less
OSVMGASA-2020-0402 No score

Updated blueman packages fixes a security vulnerability

Vaisha Bernard discovered that blueman did not properly sanitize input on the D-Bus interface to blueman-mechanism. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to escalate privileges and run arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (CVE-2020-15238).

Record
MGASA-2020-0402
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2020:1997-1 No score

Security update for blueman

This update for blueman fixes the following issues:

  • Update to version 2.1.4
    • CVE-2020-15238: Fixed a local denial-of-service in the D-Bus interface (boo#1178196)
Record
openSUSE-SU-2020:1997-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2020:2024-1 No score

Security update for blueman

This update for blueman fixes the following issues:

  • Update to version 2.1.4
    • CVE-2020-15238: Fixed a local denial-of-service in the D-Bus interface (boo#1178196)

This update was imported from the openSUSE:Leap:15.2:Update update project.

Record
openSUSE-SU-2020:2024-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2024:10656-1 No score

blueman-2.2.1-1.2 on GA media

These are all security issues fixed in the blueman-2.2.1-1.2 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Record
openSUSE-SU-2024:10656-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUSN-4605-1 No score

blueman vulnerability

Vaisha Bernard discovered that blueman did not properly sanitize input on the d-bus interface to blueman-mechanism. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to escalate privileges and run arbitrary code or cause a denial of service. (CVE-2020-15238)

Record
USN-4605-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
blueman
Debian:12
before 2.1.4-1
2.1.4-1
blueman
Debian:13
before 2.1.4-1
2.1.4-1
blueman
Debian:14
before 2.1.4-1
2.1.4-1
blueman
Debian:9
before 2.0.4-1+deb9u1, plus listed versions
2.0.4-1
2.0.4-1+deb9u1
blueman
Debian:10
before 2.0.8-1+deb10u1, plus listed versions
2.0.8-1
2.0.8-1+deb10u1
blueman
Mageia:7
before 2.1.4-1.mga7
2.1.4-1.mga7
blueman
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
before 2.0.4-1ubuntu2.1, plus listed versions
2.0-1ubuntu12.0.3-1ubuntu12.0.4-1ubuntu12.0.4-1ubuntu2
2.0.4-1ubuntu2.1
blueman
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
before 2.0.5-1ubuntu1.1, plus listed versions
2.0.4-1ubuntu32.0.5-1ubuntu1
2.0.5-1ubuntu1.1
blueman
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
before 2.1.2-1ubuntu0.1, plus listed versions
2.0.8-1ubuntu12.1.1-12.1.2-1
2.1.2-1ubuntu0.1
blueman
SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP2
before 2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1
2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1
blueman
openSUSE:Leap 15.2
before 2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1
2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1
blueman
SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP2
before 2.1.4-bp152.2.6.1
2.1.4-bp152.2.6.1

Public exploits

Links only. Every CVE stores no exploit code.

Public exploits
SourceLinkDate
Exploit-DBBlueman < 2.1.4 - Local Privilege Escalation2020-10-28

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, Exploit-DB, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2020-15238 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.1) in Blueman-project Blueman, published October 27, 2020. Public exploit code exists. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 4.59%, the 91st percentile. Fixed in blueman 2.1.4-1.

References

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