CVE-2026-68118 PUBLISHED

tcp: challenge ACK for non-exact RST in SYN-RECEIVED

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 30.07.2026 Published: 10.08.2026 Updated: 10.08.2026

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

tcp: challenge ACK for non-exact RST in SYN-RECEIVED

The SYN-RECEIVED request-socket path in tcp_check_req() accepts an in-window RST without requiring SEG.SEQ to exactly match RCV.NXT. A non-exact RST therefore removes the request instead of eliciting a challenge ACK.

RFC 9293 section 3.10.7.4 applies the RFC 5961 reset check in SYN-RECEIVED: an exact RST resets the connection, while a non-exact in-window RST must trigger a challenge ACK and be dropped.

Apply that check before the ACK-field validation, following the RFC sequence-number, RST, then ACK processing order. Factor the per-netns challenge ACK quota out of tcp_send_challenge_ack() so request sockets can share it. Use the request socket's send_ack() callback and its own out-of-window ACK timestamp to send and rate-limit the response.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 282f23c6ee343126156dd41218b22ece96d747e3 to 234f9ffbd9b2c1b24ec67200ea3cff07401bec48 (excl.)
  • affected from 282f23c6ee343126156dd41218b22ece96d747e3 to 22cec809b048495310f206d9abbcdbbfbdce3ae3 (excl.)
  • affected from 282f23c6ee343126156dd41218b22ece96d747e3 to a28c4fcbf774e23b4779cae468e3497a5ad1f4a1 (excl.)
  • Version 86791bbfe5ed7b275be040cfeff049a1624af1b7 is affected
  • Version 61f69dc4e40e41b0018f00fa4aeb23d3239556fb is affected
  • Version 34fb350281ced2a72707a5c0064f69992d440edb is affected
  • affected from 3.0.58 to 3.1 (excl.)
  • affected from 3.2.37 to 3.3 (excl.)
  • affected from 3.4.25 to 3.5 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 3.6 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 3.6 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.42 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.6 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2-rc5 to * (incl.)

References