CVE-2026-53181
MediumCVSS 5.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk2th percentile - higher than 2% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, a leak of the sk_ack_backlog counter was found in the vsock/vmci driver during a failed handshake. This causes the counter to increase permanently, eventually blocking all new connections when the limit is reached.
Risk Assessment
The organization is exposed to a silent denial of service (DoS) when repeated handshake failures occur. Recovery requires restarting the listening process.
Recommendation
Apply the Linux kernel patch addressing CVE-2026-53181 immediately. Update to a kernel version containing the fix commit.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-99282Unknown
In the Linux kernel, net/sched: sch_teql contains a use-after-free vulnerability. teql_master_xmit() incorrectly treats NET_XMIT_DROP as an unconsumed packet and operates on freed memory. The issue affects configurations with VLAN interfaces and pfifo qdisc with limit 0.
- CVE-2026-99281Unknown
A flaw in the Linux kernel tun/tap mechanism allowed processes without CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach to persistent tun devices that had no owner or group set. Anyone able to open /dev/net/tun could attach to such devices and intercept or inject network traffic. The fix now requires CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach to an ownerless, groupless device.
- CVE-2026-99280Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: drain session procfs readers before dropping table references. Session registration failure and connection cleanup can drop the table reference while the per-session procfs entry is still accessible. If a reader holds the last remaining reference, its final put calls proc_remove() from its own callback and waits for that callback to finish. Remove the procfs entry before dropping the table reference in the registration failure path. Queue sessions removed during connection cleanup and drain their procfs readers after releasing both session locks, then return their table references. Keep the global hash node unhashed while a session is queued so a concurrent unregister cannot drop the reference again. Previous-session replacement also destroys the file table before the session is finally freed. Detach the idr under the lock used by procfs file counters, and report zero files after it has been detached. This prevents a reader from accessing the idr during or after its destruction.
- CVE-2026-99278Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: limit sessions on each connection. The pending setup limit only counts InProgress sessions. A client can complete authentication repeatedly and retain an unbounded number of Valid sessions on one connection. Reserve a connection slot before allocating a session and retain a connection reference while authentication is in progress. The first SMB3 channel takes over that reservation; binding to another connection reserves one slot there. Reauthentication and authentication continuation reuse the existing reservation. Return slots on allocation or insertion failure, channel removal, and final session destruction. Accept max_sessions_per_connection in reserved startup-request space and default to 64 when older tools leave it zero. Keep the request size and existing field offsets unchanged. Expose the configured limit in procfs. The existing connection limits bound the aggregate number of sessions without a separate global session allocation limit.
- CVE-2026-99259Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the soc/tegra: pmc driver has an uninitialised early_pmc->rate variable for legacy 32-bit Tegra devices. The variable is never configured and remains 0, triggering a warning in tegra_pmc_enter_suspend_mode(). The issue appeared after the PMC driver was changed to create the PMC context dynamically, updating rate only in the new context.
- CVE-2026-99258Unknown
In the Linux kernel, hv_apicid_to_vp_index() uses per-CPU hypercall input and output pages. In an SEV-SNP CoCo VM without a paravisor the output page is not allocated, so the hypervisor stores the resulting VP index into memory not allocated by the guest. The fix uses the input page for both input and output.
- CVE-2026-99257Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the shared GPIO mechanism based on platform lookup tables requires an associated struct device. An fwnode-based lookup with no associated device currently causes a NULL-pointer dereference. The fix adds a check that lets the kernel gracefully handle this situation with an error.
- CVE-2026-99256Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the dm cache module used a rw_semaphore for background_work_lock, although write locks on rw_semaphores have strict owner semantics. The locking process was not always the same as the unlocking one, triggering a warning with CONFIG_DEBUG_RWSEMS during suspend/resume of a cache device. The fix replaces the rw_semaphore with a spinlock and a wait queue.
- CVE-2026-99251Unknown
In the Linux kernel, init_vp_index() contains a retry loop that strips CPUs from a node if they are already in the allocated cpumask or outside the HK_TYPE_MANAGED_IRQ housekeeping cpumask. If the housekeeping cpumask contains no CPU in that node, the loop becomes infinite. The fix skips NUMA nodes with no housekeeping CPU and aborts early when no online housekeeping CPUs exist.
- CVE-2026-99250Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the NBCON console printing kthreads are started very early during boot via early_initcall(). Asynchronously enabling/disabling interrupts during early boot may interfere with early SMP setup on some hardware platforms, causing hangs. The fix postpones kthread startup until after all arch initcalls have completed.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

