Bug 2554974 (CVE-2026-98614)

Summary:	CVE-2026-98614 kernel: sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	high
Version:	unspecified	CC:	akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) subsystem. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by triggering an infinite loop during retransmission path selection. When all candidate network paths are in an unconfirmed state, the kernel fails to recognize the completion of its search loop, resulting in system livelock and CPU starvation.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:36:48 UTC

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

sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path

sctp_assoc_update_retran_path() can loop forever when every remaining
transport, including retran_path, is SCTP_UNCONFIRMED: the state check
runs before the wraparound test, so the loop cannot observe that it has
completed a full pass.

Fix this by considering a transport only when it is not UNCONFIRMED,
then checking whether the walk has returned to retran_path. This makes
the full-pass termination independent of the transport state while
preserving the existing fallback selection semantics.

Also restore the NULL guard around the retran_path assignment. In the
all-UNCONFIRMED case there is no eligible replacement transport, and
installing NULL would leave later retransmit-path users and the debug
print with a NULL path.