CVE-2026-98614: sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path

Severity: unknown
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-18 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path sctp_assoc_update_retran_path() can loop forever when every remaining transport, including retran_path, is SCTP_UNCONFIRMED: the state check runs before the wraparound test, so the loop cannot observe that it has completed a full pass. Fix this by considering a transport only when it is not UNCONFIRMED, then checking whether the walk has returned to retran_path. This makes the full-pass termination independent of the transport state while preserving the existing fallback selection semantics. Also restore the NULL guard around the retran_path assignment. In the all-UNCONFIRMED case there is no eligible replacement transport, and installing NULL would leave later retransmit-path users and the debug print with a NULL path.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.10.106 before 3.11; from 3.12.71 before 3.13; 3.14 — fixed in 3.11, 3.13, 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.11, 3.13, 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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