CVE-2026-53181EPSS p2.4%
CVE-2026-53181CVE-2026-53181
linux / linux_kernel
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vsock/vmci: fix sk_ack_backlog leak on failed handshake
When vmci_transport_recv_connecting_server() returns an error,
vmci_transport_recv_listen() calls vsock_remove_pending() but never
calls sk_acceptq_removed(). This leaves sk_ack_backlog incremented
permanently.
Repeated handshake failures (malformed packets, queue pair alloc
failure, event subscribe failure) cause sk_ack_backlog to climb
toward sk_max_ack_backlog. Once it reaches the limit the listener
permanently refuses all new connections with -ECONNREFUSED, a
silent denial of service requiring a process restart to recover.
The two existing sk_acceptq_removed() calls in af_vsock.c do not
cover this path: line 764 checks vsock_is_pending() which returns
false after vsock_remove_pending(), and line 1889 is only reached
on successful accept().
Fix by balancing sk_acceptq_added() with sk_acceptq_removed() on
the error path.
Scoring
| CVSS | 5.5 () |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| EPSS | 0.12% probability of exploitation · percentile 2.4% · 2026-08-11T12:00:17Z |
| Last modified | 2026-07-06 |