Critical severity · published Jun 25, 2026
CVE-2026-53246
sctp: validate cached peer INIT chunk length in COOKIE_ECHO processing
9.8
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sctp: validate cached peer INIT chunk length in COOKIE_ECHO processing
When a listening SCTP server processes a COOKIE_ECHO chunk, the cached
peer INIT chunk embedded after the cookie is parsed and its parameters
are later walked by sctp_process_init() using sctp_walk_params().
However, the chunk header length of this cached INIT chunk was not
validated against the remaining buffer in the COOKIE_ECHO payload. If
the length field is inflated, the parameter walk can run beyond the
actual received data, leading to out-of-bounds reads and potential
memory corruption during later parameter handling (e.g. STATE_COOKIE
processing and kmemdup() copies).
Add a bounds check in sctp_unpack_cookie() to ensure the cached INIT
chunk length does not exceed the available data in the COOKIE_ECHO
buffer before it is used.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 38% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KE
Kernel · Linux
2.6.12.1 before 6.18.36; 6.19 before 7.0.13; 2.6.12; 2.6.12; 2.6.12; 2.6.12; +7 more · source: NVD
LI
Linux · Linux
1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before cc272185c9a9a4b7febc2de52eeaa3d00f19091e; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before edccbf3d63b0a3362bc916ea72edacc1e1ca456a; 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 before 0861615c28de668669d748ef4eb913ea9262d13b; 2.6.12 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53246
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53246
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0861615c28de668669d748ef4eb913ea9262d13b
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc272185c9a9a4b7febc2de52eeaa3d00f19091e
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/edccbf3d63b0a3362bc916ea72edacc1e1ca456a
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