Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4 TCP Listener Stop inet_connection_sock.c inet_csk_listen_stop race condition

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
8.7	$0-$5k	1.86

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as very critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.157/6.12.111/6.18.54/7.2.8/7.3-rc4. Affected by this issue is the function inet_csk_listen_stop of the file net/ipv4/inet_connection_sock.c of the component TCP Listener Stop. This manipulation causes race condition. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-98646. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.157/6.12.111/6.18.54/7.2.8/7.3-rc4. Affected by this vulnerability is the function inet_csk_listen_stop of the file net/ipv4/inet_connection_sock.c of the component TCP Listener Stop. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a race condition vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-362. The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tcp: Skip cond_resched() in inet_csk_listen_stop() under BPF context bpf_sock_destroy() runs from the tcp iterator, under rcu_read_lock(). If the sock is a listener that still has children in its accept queue, tcp_abort() ends up in inet_csk_listen_stop() and the cond_resched() there trips the debug check: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at net/ipv4/inet_connection_sock.c:1523 in_atomic(): 0, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 628, name: test_progs preempt_count: 0, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 1, expected: 0 locks held by test_progs/628: 3, last CPU#3: #0: ffff8881158cee18 (&p->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: bpf_seq_read+0x56/0x1210 #1: ffff8881106bb858 (sk_lock-AF_INET6){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: bpf_iter_tcp_seq_show+0x32b/0x4b0 #2: ffffffffb435af20 (rcu_read_lock){....}-{1:3}, at: bpf_iter_run_prog+0x46b/0xde0 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 628 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G W 7.2.0+ #65 PREEMPT Tainted: [W]=WARN Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0xc1/0xf0 dump_stack+0x10/0x20 __might_resched+0x3d2/0x610 inet_csk_listen_stop+0x7b/0xbf0 tcp_abort+0x23b/0x3b0 bpf_sock_destroy+0xfc/0x140 bpf_prog_448133d24601754f_iter_tcp6_server+0x81/0x8a bpf_iter_run_prog+0x538/0xde0 bpf_iter_tcp_seq_show+0x26b/0x4b0 bpf_seq_read+0x424/0x1210 vfs_read+0x197/0xe40 ksys_read+0x119/0x240 __x64_sys_read+0x72/0xc0 x64_sys_call+0x647/0x27e0 do_syscall_64+0xe5/0x610 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7fad39b28aca RSP: 002b:00007ffc381c61c0 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007ffc381c6a88 RCX: 00007fad39b28aca RDX: 0000000000000032 RSI: 00007ffc381c6250 RDI: 0000000000000014 RBP: 00007ffc381c61e0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000003 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000055f077c1bbb0 R15: 00007fad3a0f3000 </TASK> The commit that added the kfunc already guards lock_sock() in tcp_abort() and udp_abort() with has_current_bpf_ctx(), but missed the listener path. Do the same for the cond_resched(). The loop runs inside the iterator's rcu_read_lock(), it must not reschedule or report a quiescent state there.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-98646 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. Additional levels of successful authentication are required for exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/18/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.55, 7.2.9 or 7.3-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 23da88d1597ee7fdda373e1530284b763710911f/5b52417c6196e05618a3b5d9753dbed9adef0166/55bbebf2829c3f47c5a48fc261740301d0f25f48/ee7246bccb9da66076dd8094daa48bdc761d6b76/eaab8cab451b9502ce224cd202550375b894a467 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.157
• 6.12.111
• 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
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 6.18.53
• 6.18.54
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3
• 7.3-rc4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 9.1
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 8.7

VulDB Base Score: 9.1
VulDB Temp Score: 8.7
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Race condition
CWE: CWE-362
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.6.158/6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5
Patch: 23da88d1597ee7fdda373e1530284b763710911f/5b52417c6196e05618a3b5d9753dbed9adef0166/55bbebf2829c3f47c5a48fc261740301d0f25f48/ee7246bccb9da66076dd8094daa48bdc761d6b76/eaab8cab451b9502ce224cd202550375b894a467

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 CVE reserved
10/18/2026 +23 days Advisory disclosed
10/18/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
10/18/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-98646 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-98646
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-422137

Entryinfo

Created: 10/18/2026 20:37
Changes: 10/18/2026 20:37 (60)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion

Are you interested in using VulDB?

Download the whitepaper to learn more about our service!