CVE-2026-64551 PUBLISHED

sctp: validate STALE_COOKIE cause length before reading staleness

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 19.07.2026 Published: 27.07.2026 Updated: 30.07.2026

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

sctp: validate STALE_COOKIE cause length before reading staleness

When an ERROR chunk with a STALE_COOKIE cause is received in the COOKIE_ECHOED state, sctp_sf_do_5_2_6_stale() reads the 4-byte Measure of Staleness that follows the cause header:

<pre>err = (struct sctp_errhdr *)(chunk->skb->data); stale = ntohl(*(__be32 *)((u8 *)err + sizeof(*err))); </pre>

err is the first cause in the chunk, not the STALE_COOKIE cause that caused the dispatch, and nothing guarantees the staleness field is present. sctp_walk_errors() only requires a cause to be as long as the 4-byte header, so for a STALE_COOKIE cause of length 4 the read runs past the cause, and for a minimal ERROR chunk past skb->tail. The value is echoed to the peer in the Cookie Preservative of the reply INIT, leaking uninitialized memory.

sctp_sf_cookie_echoed_err() already walks to the STALE_COOKIE cause, so check its length there and pass it to sctp_sf_do_5_2_6_stale(), which reads that cause instead of the first one. A STALE_COOKIE cause too short to hold the staleness field is discarded.

The read is reachable by any peer that can drive an association into COOKIE_ECHOED, including an unprivileged process using a raw SCTP socket in a user and network namespace.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
CVSS Score: 9.1

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 6022da37786701df1fc5dd946a6dcba59d5473b1 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 861f884f5471632c731cbbd612a1c072e391a624 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 588706ebaf8cdb4a4161602949eba365514b1db1 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to a257b41ddfe9e327b26581ad2777f04b23ac73f5 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 08a8f2d13f703924316e9aeac863a88ef50990c7 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to ebe0a55d954fa8da383b6192edb8f763dcb002d5 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to bbd6b2ea966cf57b6ae095cf5a8dbc993cd197a0 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 1cd23ca80784223fa2204e16203f754da4e821f8 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.261 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.212 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.178 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.145 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.97 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.40 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.5 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2-rc4 to * (incl.)

References