Critical · published August 22, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sctp: clear control chunk transport if it is being removed
sctp_make_heartbeat_ack() caches the destination transport in
chunk->transport without taking a reference. When src_out_of_asoc_ok is
enabled, the HEARTBEAT ACK may remain queued on control_chunk_list instead
of being transmitted immediately.
If the peer transport is removed while the chunk is still queued,
sctp_assoc_rm_peer() drops the transport and schedules it for RCU freeing,
but only clears cached transport pointers in out_chunk_list. The queued
control chunk therefore retains a dangling transport pointer.
Once an ASCONF_ACK clears the suppression and the queued control chunk is
transmitted, SCTP dereferences the stale transport pointer, leading to a
use-after-free.
Fix this by also clearing chunk->transport for queued control chunks in
control_chunk_list when removing the transport.