Critical · published August 22, 2026
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.