Bug 2492769 (CVE-2026-53224)

Summary: CVE-2026-53224 kernel: sctp: validate embedded INIT chunk and address list lengths in cookie
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation. Specifically, improper validation of embedded INIT chunk and address list lengths in SCTP cookies could allow a remote attacker to trigger out-of-bounds reads. This could lead to information disclosure or potentially a denial of service (DoS) condition.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-25 10:04:46 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sctp: validate embedded INIT chunk and address list lengths in cookie

sctp_unpack_cookie() only checked that the embedded INIT chunk length
did not exceed the remaining cookie payload, but did not ensure that the
INIT chunk is large enough to contain a complete INIT header.

A malformed COOKIE_ECHO can therefore carry a truncated INIT chunk whose
length field is smaller than sizeof(struct sctp_init_chunk).  Later,
sctp_process_init() accesses INIT parameters unconditionally, which may
lead to out-of-bounds reads.

In addition, raw_addr_list_len is not fully validated against the
remaining cookie payload. When cookie authentication is disabled, an
attacker can supply an oversized raw_addr_list_len and cause
sctp_raw_to_bind_addrs() to read beyond the end of the cookie. The
address parser also lacks sufficient bounds checks for parameter headers
and lengths, allowing malformed address parameters to trigger
out-of-bounds reads.

Fix this by:

- requiring the embedded INIT chunk length to be at least sizeof(struct
  sctp_init_chunk);
- validating that the INIT chunk and raw address list together fit
  within the cookie payload;
- verifying sufficient data exists for each address parameter header and
  payload before parsing it.

Note that sctp_verify_init() must be called after sctp_unpack_cookie()
and before sctp_process_init() when cookie authentication is disabled.
This will be addressed in a separate patch.