CVE-2026-53246
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation. A remote attacker could exploit this by sending a specially crafted COOKIE_ECHO chunk to a listening SCTP server. The server's failure to properly validate the length of a cached peer INIT chunk within the COOKIE_ECHO payload could lead to out-of-bounds reads and memory corruption. This could result in a denial of service or potentially information disclosure.
Statement
SCTP COOKIE_ECHO processing failed to validate the cached peer INIT chunk length against the remaining cookie buffer, allowing a remote SCTP peer to make parameter parsing walk beyond received data and potentially trigger OOB reads or later memory corruption in SCTP parameter handling. This allows sctp_process_init() and sctp_walk_params() to walk beyond the actual received buffer and can lead to out-of-bounds reads during later parameter handling such as STATE_COOKIE processing and kmemdup() copies.
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, prevent module sctp from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7 | N/A | 9.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity
Technical Impact: Read Memory; Modify Memory; Varies by Context
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