Linux Kernel up to 6.18.35/7.0.12 sctp sctp_process_init walk out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.35/7.0.12. It has been declared as critical. This impacts the function sctp_process_init of the component sctp. Such manipulation of the argument walk leads to out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-53246. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.35/7.0.12. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function sctp_process_init of the component sctp. The manipulation of the argument walk with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: validate cached peer INIT chunk length in COOKIE_ECHO processing When a listening SCTP server processes a COOKIE_ECHO chunk, the cached peer INIT chunk embedded after the cookie is parsed and its parameters are later walked by sctp_process_init() using sctp_walk_params(). However, the chunk header length of this cached INIT chunk was not validated against the remaining buffer in the COOKIE_ECHO payload. If the length field is inflated, the parameter walk can run beyond the actual received data, leading to out-of-bounds reads and potential memory corruption during later parameter handling (e.g. STATE_COOKIE processing and kmemdup() copies). Add a bounds check in sctp_unpack_cookie() to ensure the cached INIT chunk length does not exceed the available data in the COOKIE_ECHO buffer before it is used.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-53246 since 06/09/2026. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/25/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.18.36 or 7.0.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch cc272185c9a9a4b7febc2de52eeaa3d00f19091e/edccbf3d63b0a3362bc916ea72edacc1e1ca456a/0861615c28de668669d748ef4eb913ea9262d13b is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9
• 7.0.10
• 7.0.11
• 7.0.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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