CVE-2026-53181 PUBLISHED

vsock/vmci: fix sk_ack_backlog leak on failed handshake

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.06.2026 Published: 25.06.2026 Updated: 25.06.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vsock/vmci: fix sk_ack_backlog leak on failed handshake

When vmci_transport_recv_connecting_server() returns an error, vmci_transport_recv_listen() calls vsock_remove_pending() but never calls sk_acceptq_removed(). This leaves sk_ack_backlog incremented permanently.

Repeated handshake failures (malformed packets, queue pair alloc failure, event subscribe failure) cause sk_ack_backlog to climb toward sk_max_ack_backlog. Once it reaches the limit the listener permanently refuses all new connections with -ECONNREFUSED, a silent denial of service requiring a process restart to recover.

The two existing sk_acceptq_removed() calls in af_vsock.c do not cover this path: line 764 checks vsock_is_pending() which returns false after vsock_remove_pending(), and line 1889 is only reached on successful accept().

Fix by balancing sk_acceptq_added() with sk_acceptq_removed() on the error path.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to 22c587aa3ab1ab5264daff3ec32136fd30436c13 (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to cf7090e255d74c4b61c51f8ede9fcacdd8393b5b (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to ea0b03d52881c12a8c634ea0d6cbfa61cefdb488 (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to dfd853197615d322d3a88dbcab91fc0fd2096219 (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to bcb275626055df7f8f947f1a349754b4004d9a15 (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to ba9ad6015937a5e46ba1a31370e3efdec8abbdcc (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to 9698582a4dd9c4a05889d7db96d4c0edc9e69cac (excl.)
  • affected from d021c344051af91f42c5ba9fdedc176740cbd238 to c05fa14db43ebef3bd862ca9d073981c0358b3f0 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 3.9 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 3.9 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.259 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.210 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.176 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.143 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.94 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.36 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0.13 to 7.0.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1 to * (incl.)

References