CVE-2026-80890 PUBLISHED

sctp: reject stale cookies with mismatched verification tags

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 26.08.2026 Published: 04.09.2026 Updated: 04.09.2026

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

sctp: reject stale cookies with mismatched verification tags

sctp_unpack_cookie() skips cookie expiration checks whenever an association already exists. This is broader than the exception in RFC 9260 Section 5.2.4.

For an existing association, Section 5.2.4 permits an expired State Cookie only when both Verification Tags in the cookie match the current association. Otherwise, the packet SHOULD be discarded and a Stale Cookie ERROR MUST be sent.

The broad check lets an expired Action A restart cookie reach sctp_sf_do_dupcook_a(). In a runtime test with the default 60 second cookie lifetime, replaying such a cookie after 65 seconds returned a COOKIE-ACK and restarted the association.

Check cookie expiration unless both Verification Tags match. This preserves the Action D exception for a lost COOKIE ACK while rejecting expired cookies in all other cases.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to f6e3cc296372accad4ee57405195021231ef4bcb (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to c151daba0ceb1fb068a215b07de89fb1eb5f87bc (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 817cffdbdbdf50e1f2b016599d1897de3ca54964 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 61baa5020b0afb41bfd97f8f6ce5e336c4a4546e (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to c68557a49e960dbcdede22c7a9b488603078b8b4 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to a0d1693923f41d6f49083aa2446686aed09d1d79 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 35c279113498d19a8734e2aae67b951b9b20f634 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 9d8da8e0a9bce4a340af60dd0446bc7eb8d07587 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.265 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.216 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.183 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.151 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.103 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.44 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.8 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References