NVD Vulnerability Detail
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CVE-2026-53181
Summary

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.

Publication Date June 25, 2026, 6:16 p.m.
Registration Date June 27, 2026, 4:26 a.m.
Last Update June 25, 2026, 6:16 p.m.
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