Bug 2521419 (CVE-2026-74586)

Summary: CVE-2026-74586 kernel: sctp: clear new_transport when removing a peer
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation. An authenticated remote SCTP peer can trigger a use-after-free vulnerability by adding and then immediately removing a transport within the same ASCONF chunk. This can lead to a system crash, resulting in a denial of service.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-22 15:44:40 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sctp: clear new_transport when removing a peer

sctp_process_asconf_param() stores a newly added peer transport in
asoc->new_transport. After all parameters in the ASCONF chunk have been
processed, sctp_sf_do_asconf() uses this pointer to send a HEARTBEAT to the
new transport.

An authenticated ASCONF from a remote SCTP peer can add a transport and
remove it again with a wildcard DEL-IP parameter in the same chunk. The
wildcard deletion preserves the transport on which the ASCONF arrived, but
removes the newly added transport through
sctp_assoc_del_nonprimary_peers(). The removal does not clear
asoc->new_transport, leaving it pointing to the removed transport.

sctp_sf_do_asconf() then creates a HEARTBEAT whose chunk->transport points
to the removed transport without holding a transport reference. During
local address replacement, src_out_of_asoc_ok keeps this HEARTBEAT on
control_chunk_list. After the transport is freed by RCU, a successful
ASCONF_ACK for the replacement address releases the queued HEARTBEAT and
sctp_outq_select_transport() reads the freed transport's state.

The issue was found during a static audit of SCTP objects. With an
authenticated peer, the reproducer triggered the same KASAN report in 2
of 2 unpatched runs on a KASAN-enabled netdev/main kernel:

  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sctp_outq_select_transport
  Read of size 4 at addr ffff88800b9bd95c by task python3/197

  Call Trace:
   sctp_outq_select_transport+0x549/0x8b0 [sctp]
   sctp_outq_flush+0x306/0x2c60 [sctp]
   sctp_transport_immediate_rtx+0xaf/0x260 [sctp]
   sctp_process_asconf_ack+0xa48/0xf70 [sctp]

  Allocated by task 197:
   sctp_transport_new+0x68/0x650 [sctp]
   sctp_assoc_add_peer+0x258/0x12a0 [sctp]
   sctp_process_asconf+0x5e9/0x1090 [sctp]

  Last potentially related work creation:
   __call_rcu_common.constprop.0+0x77/0xb70
   sctp_assoc_del_nonprimary_peers+0x7c/0xd0 [sctp]
   sctp_process_asconf+0xd9c/0x1090 [sctp]

The first invalid access was a four-byte read of transport->state at
net/sctp/outqueue.c:833. The same reproducer completed the full
authenticated ASCONF and local-address replacement sequence with this
change without a KASAN report or oops.

Clear new_transport when its peer is removed, before it can be used to
create the HEARTBEAT.