CVE-2026-99166

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) subsystem. When handling connection events on non-InfiniBand Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) devices, the kernel fails to initialize an internal transport pointer. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a connection request to an affected RDS listener, triggering an invalid pointer dereference that crashes the system and results in a Denial of Service (DoS).

Red Hat has evaluated this issue as having a Moderate security impact because triggering the flaw requires non-standard configurations involving active Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) listeners across non-InfiniBand RDMA interfaces, such as iWARP devices. The RDS protocol modules are not loaded by default in standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments. While an unexpected connection request could cause a kernel crash resulting in a denial of service, the issue cannot be leveraged for arbitrary code execution or data exposure.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.