CVE-2025-71088 mptcp: fallback earlier on simult connection

Medium 5.5 Published 13 Jan 2026 Updated 15 Oct 2026

A race condition in the Linux kernel MPTCP subsystem can cause a kernel warning and potential denial of service during simultaneous connections.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2025-71088?

CVE-2025-71088 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mptcp: fallback earlier on simult connection

Syzkaller reports a simult-connect race leading to inconsistent fallback status:

WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 33 at net/mptcp/subflow.c:1515 subflow_data_ready+0x40b/0x7c0 net/mptcp/subflow.c:1515 Modules linked in: CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 33 Comm: ksoftirqd/3 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:subflow_data_ready+0x40b/0x7c0 net/mptcp/subflow.c:1515 Code: 89 ee e8 78 61 3c f6 40 84 ed 75 21 e8 8e 66 3c f6 44 89 fe bf 07 00 00 00 e8 c1 61 3c f6 41 83 ff 07 74 09 e8 76 66 3c f6 90 <0f> 0b 90 e8 6d 66 3c f6 48 89 df e8 e5 ad ff ff 31 ff 89 c5 89 c6 RSP: 0018:ffffc900006cf338 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888031acd100 RCX: ffffffff8b7f2abf RDX: ffff88801e6ea440 RSI: ffffffff8b7f2aca RDI: 0000000000000005 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 0000000000000007 R10: 0000000000000004 R11: 0000000000002c10 R12: ffff88802ba69900 R13: 1ffff920000d9e67 R14: ffff888046f81800 R15: 0000000000000004 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880d69bc000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000560fc0ca1670 CR3: 0000000032c3a000 CR4: 0000000000352ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> tcp_data_queue+0x13b0/0x4f90 net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:5197 tcp_rcv_state_process+0xfdf/0x4ec0 net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:6922 tcp_v6_do_rcv+0x492/0x1740 net/ipv6/tcp_ipv6.c:1672 tcp_v6_rcv+0x2976/0x41e0 net/ipv6/tcp_ipv6.c:1918 ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x188/0x1520 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:438 ip6_input_finish+0x1e4/0x4b0 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:489 NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:318 [inline] NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:312 [inline] ip6_input+0x105/0x2f0 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:500 dst_input include/net/dst.h:471 [inline] ip6_rcv_finish net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:79 [inline] NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:318 [inline] NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:312 [inline] ipv6_rcv+0x264/0x650 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:311 __netif_receive_skb_one_core+0x12d/0x1e0 net/core/dev.c:5979 __netif_receive_skb+0x1d/0x160 net/core/dev.c:6092 process_backlog+0x442/0x15e0 net/core/dev.c:6444 __napi_poll.constprop.0+0xba/0x550 net/core/dev.c:7494 napi_poll net/core/dev.c:7557 [inline] net_rx_action+0xa9f/0xfe0 net/core/dev.c:7684 handle_softirqs+0x216/0x8e0 kernel/softirq.c:579 run_ksoftirqd kernel/softirq.c:968 [inline] run_ksoftirqd+0x3a/0x60 kernel/softirq.c:960 smpboot_thread_fn+0x3f7/0xae0 kernel/smpboot.c:160 kthread+0x3c2/0x780 kernel/kthread.c:463 ret_from_fork+0x5d7/0x6f0 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:148 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 </TASK>

The TCP subflow can process the simult-connect syn-ack packet after transitioning to TCP_FIN1 state, bypassing the MPTCP fallback check, as the sk_state_change() callback is not invoked for * -> FIN_WAIT1 transitions.

That will move the msk socket to an inconsistent status and the next incoming data will hit the reported splat.

Close the race moving the simult-fallback check at the earliest possible stage - that is at syn-ack generation time.

About the fixes tags: [2] was supposed to also fix this issue introduced by [3]. [1] is required as a dependence: it was not explicitly marked as a fix, but it is one and it has already been backported before [3]. In other words, this commit should be backported up to [3], including [2] and [1] if that's not already there.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71088?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-71088?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-71088 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71088 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71088, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71088, GHSA-7xjf-vxwf-j6g3, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71088, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-71088, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71088 and 1 more.