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CVE-2026-72398

sctp: add INIT verification after cookie unpacking

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 6.6.160, 6.12.114, 6.18.40, 7.1.5
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
  • Exploitation: none
  • Automatable: yes
  • Technical impact: total

Summary

The Linux kernel's SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) networking code is affected when cookie authentication is disabled. An attacker could send tampered handshake data that the kernel processes without proper validation, potentially causing association setup to be mishandled or the system to crash.

Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.

Read the original description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: add INIT verification after cookie unpacking In SCTP handshake, the INIT chunk is initially processed by the server and embedded into the cookie carried in INIT-ACK. The client then returns this cookie via COOKIE-ECHO, where the server unpacks it and reconstructs the original INIT chunk. When cookie authentication is enabled, the cookie contents are protected against tampering, so reusing the unpacked INIT without re-verification is safe. However, when cookie authentication is disabled, the reconstructed INIT can no longer be trusted. In this case, the INIT must be explicitly validated after unpacking to avoid processing potentially tampered data. Add sctp_verify_init() checks after cookie unpacking in COOKIE-ECHO processing paths (sctp_sf_do_5_1D_ce() and sctp_sf_do_5_2_4_dupcook()) when cookie_auth_enable is disabled. On failure, the new association is freed and the packet is discarded. Also tighten cookie validation in sctp_unpack_cookie() by verifying the embedded chunk type is SCTP_CID_INIT before treating it as an INIT chunk. Finally, update sctp_verify_init() to validate parameter bounds using the actual embedded INIT length instead of chunk->chunk_end, since the INIT stored in COOKIE-ECHO may not span the entire chunk buffer.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. CISA SSVC assessment

    Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total

  3. Record last updated

Affected versions

  • Linux Linux

    Version range not reported

  • Linux Linux

    2.6.12

  • KernelLinux

    From 2.6.12 · fixed in 6.6.160; From 6.7.0 · fixed in 6.12.114; From 6.13.0 · fixed in 6.18.40; From 6.19.0 · fixed in 7.1.5

References 6

git.kernel.org