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TI-2026-81872 Aliases CVE-2026-99165GHSA-h9p5-q3g4-gm7m

NULL pointer dereference in Linux SCTP send path after connect wait

Priority LOW 22Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
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Privileges required
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User interaction
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Attack complexity
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Impact type
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Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 7 without a fix

No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

The Linux kernel SCTP implementation, affected from 4.16 onward, can dereference a NULL stream extension in the send path. When message interleaving is enabled, a sender waits for association establishment with the socket lock released, and the peer's handshake can shrink the output stream count and free a stream the sender already checked. Sending on that stream then causes a NULL pointer dereference that can crash the kernel.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02

Description from the CNA

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: revalidate output stream after association connect wait When message interleaving is enabled, the first send waits for association establishment before building its data chunks. The wait drops the socket lock, and handshake processing can reduce the output stream count to the peer-advertised inbound stream count. sctp_stream_init() then frees the extension of every removed stream. The sender resumes with the stream that it checked before the wait. If the peer removed that stream, sctp_outq_tail() later dereferences its NULL extension. Fatal-oops policies then panic the host. KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x38-0x3f] RIP: sctp_outq_tail+0x49e/0xaa0 Call Trace: sctp_primitive_SEND sctp_sendmsg_to_asoc sctp_sendmsg A range check alone is insufficient. Stream reconfiguration can grow the output count again while the lock is released without recreating extensions freed by the earlier shrink. The stream can then be in range while its extension remains NULL. The send-buffer wait has the same issue. Factor the range and extension checks into a helper and repeat both after each send-path wait that drops the socket lock. Once the lock is reacquired, the validation remains stable through data creation and queueing. If validation fails after the connect wait, the auto-created association is already established. Return ESRCH so the existing caller path keeps it under state-machine ownership instead of freeing it directly, which would leave protocol, counter and socket state inconsistent.

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00183 7th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191 +5Red Hat: 7 without a fix

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux4.16 and later5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.161, 6.12.115, 6.18.59, 7.2.13, 7.3Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.16 and later Fixed in 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.161, 6.12.115, 6.18.59, 7.2.13, 7.3 Patch available CNA

CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1

Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*——Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·Linux

Remediation

Update the Linux kernel to 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.161, 6.12.115, 6.18.59, 7.2.13 or 7.3, depending on the stable branch in use. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 has no fix planned, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 and 5 have no fix available.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.161, 6.12.115, 6.18.59, 7.2.13, 7.3

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-28 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-99165
  2. 2026-10-28 Alias added: GHSA-h9p5-q3g4-gm7m
  3. 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/Linux@26af2969b29cc5eb893a454fee2a36b39521a5bd, Linux/[email protected], Linux/[email protected] +7 · CNA
  4. 2026-10-30 5 new references · CNA
  5. 2026-11-01 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
  6. 2026-11-01 CVSS score added · Red Hat
  7. 2026-11-02 Affected versions changed · Red Hat

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2021-02452 Incorrect authorization in Ubuntu linux kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
See all 21741 →

Sources