CVE-2026-74586
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk7th percentile - higher than 7% of all known CVEs
Summary
A use-after-free vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's SCTP subsystem. An authenticated remote SCTP peer can add and remove a transport within a single ASCONF chunk, leaving the new_transport pointer dangling. Subsequent operations (e.g., sending a HEARTBEAT) may read freed memory, as shown by a KASAN report in sctp_outq_select_transport.
Risk Assessment
The vulnerability could be exploited by an authenticated remote attacker to cause a kernel crash or potentially escalate privileges. However, it requires an authenticated SCTP connection, limiting risk in environments where SCTP is not used or properly secured.
Recommendation
Apply the official Linux kernel patch that clears new_transport when the peer is removed. Also consider restricting SCTP access via firewall and monitoring systems for unusual SCTP activity.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: clear new_transport when removing a peer sctp_process_asconf_param() stores a newly added peer transport in asoc->new_transport. After all parameters in the ASCONF chunk have been processed, sctp_sf_do_asconf() uses this pointer to send a HEARTBEAT to the new transport. An authenticated ASCONF from a remote SCTP peer can add a transport and remove it again with a wildcard DEL-IP parameter in the same chunk. The wildcard deletion preserves the transport on which the ASCONF arrived, but removes the newly added transport through sctp_assoc_del_nonprimary_peers(). The removal does not clear asoc->new_transport, leaving it pointing to the removed transport. sctp_sf_do_asconf() then creates a HEARTBEAT whose chunk->transport points to the removed transport without holding a transport reference. During local address replacement, src_out_of_asoc_ok keeps this HEARTBEAT on control_chunk_list. After the transport is freed by RCU, a successful ASCONF_ACK for the replacement address releases the queued HEARTBEAT and sctp_outq_select_transport() reads the freed transport's state. The issue was found during a static audit of SCTP objects. With an authenticated peer, the reproducer triggered the same KASAN report in 2 of 2 unpatched runs on a KASAN-enabled netdev/main kernel: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sctp_outq_select_transport Read of size 4 at addr ffff88800b9bd95c by task python3/197 Call Trace: sctp_outq_select_transport+0x549/0x8b0 [sctp] sctp_outq_flush+0x306/0x2c60 [sctp] sctp_transport_immediate_rtx+0xaf/0x260 [sctp] sctp_process_asconf_ack+0xa48/0xf70 [sctp] Allocated by task 197: sctp_transport_new+0x68/0x650 [sctp] sctp_assoc_add_peer+0x258/0x12a0 [sctp] sctp_process_asconf+0x5e9/0x1090 [sctp] Last potentially related work creation: __call_rcu_common.constprop.0+0x77/0xb70 sctp_assoc_del_nonprimary_peers+0x7c/0xd0 [sctp] sctp_process_asconf+0xd9c/0x1090 [sctp] The first invalid access was a four-byte read of transport->state at net/sctp/outqueue.c:833. The same reproducer completed the full authenticated ASCONF and local-address replacement sequence with this change without a KASAN report or oops. Clear new_transport when its peer is removed, before it can be used to create the HEARTBEAT.