In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path… (CVE-2026-98614)

The vulnerability in the Linux kernel SCTP subsystem involved the sctp_assoc_update_retran_path() function potentially looping forever if every remaining transport, including the retransmit path, was in the SCTP_UNCONFIRMED state. The original loop termination condition checked transport state before detecting a full pass, preventing the loop from terminating. The patch changes the logic to consider only confirmed transports for iteration and checks for loop completion independently of transport state, preserving fallback semantics. Additionally, a NULL guard was restored to avoid assigning a NULL retransmit path when no eligible transport exists.

If exploited, this vulnerability could cause a livelock condition in the SCTP retransmit path update logic, potentially leading to resource exhaustion or degraded kernel networking performance. There is no indication of code execution or privilege escalation. No known exploits are reported in the wild.

A fix has been implemented in the Linux kernel to address this issue. Users should apply the official kernel update that includes this patch. Since this is a kernel-level fix, upgrading to the patched kernel version is the recommended remediation. No additional mitigations are specified.