CVE-2026-53181
vsock/vmci: fix sk_ack_backlog leak on failed handshake
Vexday Risk Score
3Low
SSVC decision (CISA)
Track
No exploitation signal → monitor
CVSS —EPSS 0.2%KEV nãoPoC —Nuclei —Metasploit —Patch —
Lifecycle
25 Jun 2026Published on NVD
Recommendation: Monitor — no exploitation signal at the moment.
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.
Affected products
Linux · LinuxWant to know if your infrastructure is exposed to this?
Talk to TrueHacking →References
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22c587aa3ab1ab5264daff3ec32136fd30436c13https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9698582a4dd9c4a05889d7db96d4c0edc9e69cachttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ba9ad6015937a5e46ba1a31370e3efdec8abbdcchttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bcb275626055df7f8f947f1a349754b4004d9a15https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c05fa14db43ebef3bd862ca9d073981c0358b3f0https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf7090e255d74c4b61c51f8ede9fcacdd8393b5bhttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dfd853197615d322d3a88dbcab91fc0fd2096219https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ea0b03d52881c12a8c634ea0d6cbfa61cefdb488