CVE-2026-80585: mptcp: fastopen: only mark MPTFO subflows with SYN data

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.4 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-08-26 · updated 2026-10-16

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mptcp: fastopen: only mark MPTFO subflows with SYN data Passive TCP Fast Open accepts a valid-cookie SYN even when it carries no data. In that case the child socket's receive queue is intentionally left empty. mptcp_fastopen_subflow_synack_set_params() set is_mptfo before checking for queued SYN data. That made data-less TFO SYNs hit a WARN and, if the warning was non-fatal, left stale MPTFO state behind. The stale flag could later trigger a state-confusion bug in check_fully_established(). Only mark the subflow as MPTFO after confirming that an SKB was queued. Return quietly when the receive queue is empty. Note that mptcp_subflow_context's is_mptfo field is now not just about subflows where the TFO was present, but about MPTFO subflow that consumed SYN data. Only having a valid cookie but not carrying data is not really "doing TFO".

Affected products

Linux kernel: 6.2 — fixed in 7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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