Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2026-72398 in the critical feed json

sctp: add INIT verification after cookie unpacking

published 2026-08-15 2 mo ago modified 2026-10-30 10 d ago also EUVD-2026-59297

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.8%
EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 56%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sctp: add INIT verification after cookie unpacking

In SCTP handshake, the INIT chunk is initially processed by the server and embedded into the cookie carried in INIT-ACK. The client then returns this cookie via COOKIE-ECHO, where the server unpacks it and reconstructs the original INIT chunk.

When cookie authentication is enabled, the cookie contents are protected against tampering, so reusing the unpacked INIT without re-verification is safe.

However, when cookie authentication is disabled, the reconstructed INIT can no longer be trusted. In this case, the INIT must be explicitly validated after unpacking to avoid processing potentially tampered data.

Add sctp_verify_init() checks after cookie unpacking in COOKIE-ECHO processing paths (sctp_sf_do_5_1D_ce() and sctp_sf_do_5_2_4_dupcook()) when cookie_auth_enable is disabled. On failure, the new association is freed and the packet is discarded.

Also tighten cookie validation in sctp_unpack_cookie() by verifying the embedded chunk type is SCTP_CID_INIT before treating it as an INIT chunk.

Finally, update sctp_verify_init() to validate parameter bounds using the actual embedded INIT length instead of chunk->chunk_end, since the INIT stored in COOKIE-ECHO may not span the entire chunk buffer.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.114, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.115-2
  • linux Debian 14 7.1.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72398

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-34.34
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1013.13
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1013.13
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1007.8
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1020.20
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-34.34.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72398

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1.150700.17.47.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1SUSE-SU-2026:4687-1SUSE-SU-2026:4668-1SUSE-SU-2026:4667-1SUSE-SU-2026:4666-1SUSE-SU-2026:4665-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-96171

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-72398 updated cvss 7.0

kernel: sctp: add INIT verification after cookie unpacking

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
23 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.80% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 56% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.