A critical use-after-free vulnerability residing inside the Stream Control Transmission Protocol implementation of the Linux kernel has been disclosed. The flaw, present in kernel builds since 2008, allows local unprivileged users to execute arbitrary code with root privileges and escape container sandboxes.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-64564 and dubbed SCTPhantom, affects Linux kernel versions 2.6.25 through modern release tracks prior to stable updates 7.1.6, 6.18.42, and 6.12.101. The flaw stems from an identity confusion error during dynamic address reconfiguration handling in SCTP networking code. An attacker sending specific address deletion sequences induces a dangling pointer state, allowing memory reuse that escalates local process rights to full root control without requiring special container capabilities.
Bypassing container isolation boundaries undermines multi-tenant cloud hosting architectures. If a local unprivileged attacker or compromised container workload triggers the use-after-free flaw, they can escape container namespaces, access host memory structures, and claim host-level administrative authority.
– Upgrade Linux host kernels immediately to stable builds 7.1.6, 6.18.42, 6.12.101, or distribution-patched variants.
– Blacklist or disable the sctp kernel module on systems where Stream Control Transmission Protocol support is not strictly required.
– Enforce strict container isolation policies and seccomp filters to restrict unverified socket creation routines.
– Monitor host system calls for anomalous network socket options targeting SCTP address reconfigurations.
Kernel networking security relies on prompt kernel maintenance updates combined with surface reduction controls to guarantee that legacy transport subroutines cannot be exploited for local privilege escalation. #CodeDefence #LinuxKernel #SCTPhantom #PrivilegeEscalation #ContainerEscape #KernelSecurity #AppSec
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