CVE-2026-98374 PUBLISHED

tcp: fix use-after-free of retransmit_skb_hint in tcp_send_synack()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 07.10.2026 Updated: 07.10.2026

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

tcp: fix use-after-free of retransmit_skb_hint in tcp_send_synack()

When tcp_send_synack() replaces the cloned SYN skb at the head of the retransmit queue with a copy, it frees the original with tcp_rtx_queue_unlink_and_free() and only repairs tp->highest_sack. tp->retransmit_skb_hint keeps pointing at the freed skbuff_fclone_cache object.

The dangling hint is read in tcp_verify_retransmit_hint() and used as the root of the rbtree walk in tcp_xmit_retransmit_queue(). An unprivileged TFO client (sendmsg(MSG_FASTOPEN)) can arm the hint with an attacker-supplied ICMP fragmentation-needed message, after which a simultaneous open frees the armed SYN skb:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316) Read of size 4 at addr ffff88800604d928 by task swapper/1/0 Call Trace: tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316) tcp_simple_retransmit (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:3158) tcp_v4_err (net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:587)

Sync the hint to the copy.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to fad6d429651e748365e93ca54645accc212f0018 (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to c5b4da1f403a658c1c19766be2b426003ada419f (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to 71d45049b0d631dfdbf3c65305f7fca676de023b (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to e3ea71cb1408a013ed4e8a757b815f1a919324bd (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to 631aa4cb45099f09e9385dd786bd291c6270bfc4 (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to 0f87720c7e4bcab07c24888b3cf12bfe857bb90e (excl.)
  • affected from c31b70c9968fe9c4194d1b5d06d07596a3b680de to fe99bbeee5c5dbd3abc30721a8079ced59649d97 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.11 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.11 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.222 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.189 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.158 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.112 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.55 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.9 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc5 to * (incl.)

References