Description
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.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| blueman-project | blueman | < 2.1.4 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | blueman | 2.1.4-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | blueman | 2.1.4-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | blueman | 2.1.4-1 | — |
| Debian 10 | blueman | 2.0.8-1+deb10u1 | DSA-4781-1 |
| Debian 9 | blueman | 2.0.4-1+deb9u1 | DLA-2430-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | blueman | 2.1.2-1ubuntu0.1 | USN-4605-1 |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | blueman | 2.0.5-1ubuntu1.1 | USN-4605-1 |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | blueman | 2.0.4-1ubuntu2.1 | USN-4605-1 |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUSE Package Hub 15 SP2 | blueman | 2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1 | openSUSE-SU-2020:2024-1, openSUSE-SU-2020:1997-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 15.2 | blueman | 2.1.4-bp152.2.3.1 | openSUSE-SU-2020:1997-1 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Exploit-DB 1
- Blueman < 2.1.4 - Local Privilege Escalation EDB-48963 · local · Oct 28, 2020
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Advisories 5
- DSA-4781-1 blueman - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- DLA-2430-1 blueman - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- USN-4605-1 blueman vulnerability Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Feb 10, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2020:1997-1 Security update for blueman SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2020:2024-1 Security update for blueman SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
References
- https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman/security/advisories/GHSA-jpc9-mgw6-2xwx
- https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman/releases/tag/2.1.4
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/blueman/+bug/1897287
- DSA-4781 vendor-advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159740/Blueman-Local-Root-Privilege-Escalation.html
- [debian-lts-announce] 20201103 [SECURITY] [DLA 2430-1] blueman security update mailing-list
- FEDORA-2020-7c22b25a07 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-ebabb6bf76 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-e083225fa1 vendor-advisory
- GLSA-202011-11 vendor-advisory