CVE-2026-98255

/// Technical description

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

tcp: exclude old ACKs from tcp fast path

Exclude old ACKs before SND.UNA from the tcp fast path

as well as ACKs after SND.NXT.

Such ACKs will fall through to the slow path, where tcp_ack()

performs the appropriate validation and challenge ACK handling

according to RFC5961 and Commit 3d501dd326fb1c7 ("tcp: do not

accept ACK of bytes we never sent").

This prevents old ACKs from being accepted

or modifying connection state as part of the fast path before

appropriate ACK validation is applied.

In particular, this prevents payload carried by a segment with

an excessively old ACK from advancing RCV.NXT before the ACK

is rejected.

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// References