# CVE-2026-98614: sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path

> A remote attacker can cause a kernel livelock in the SCTP subsystem by triggering a specific transport state condition, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-108596, BELL-CVE-2026-98614, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98614, GHSA-hjhx-c2pg-c62c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98614

## What is CVE-2026-98614?

CVE-2026-98614 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

sctp: avoid livelock while updating retransmit path

sctp_assoc_update_retran_path() can loop forever when every remaining
transport, including retran_path, is SCTP_UNCONFIRMED: the state check
runs before the wraparound test, so the loop cannot observe that it has
completed a full pass.

Fix this by considering a transport only when it is not UNCONFIRMED,
then checking whether the walk has returned to retran_path. This makes
the full-pass termination independent of the transport state while
preserving the existing fallback selection semantics.

Also restore the NULL guard around the retran_path assignment. In the
all-UNCONFIRMED case there is no eligible replacement transport, and
installing NULL would leave later retransmit-path users and the debug
print with a NULL path.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98614?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98614?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98614 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98614 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98614 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98614 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98614 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98614/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98614/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98614
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98614
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98614

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98614/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.