diff --git a/ssh/channel.go b/ssh/channel.go
index afc9aef185..e9138d612e 100644
--- a/ssh/channel.go
+++ b/ssh/channel.go
@@ -486,7 +486,12 @@ func (ch *channel) handlePacket(packet []byte) error {
 		default:
 		}
 	default:
-		ch.msg <- msg
+		// Ignore message types that are not valid on an established channel.
+		// Only the channel-open responses and the SendRequest replies handled
+		// in the cases above are ever read from ch.msg; delivering any other
+		// type there would let a peer fill ch.msg on an open, idle channel and
+		// permanently stall the single mux read loop — the same primitive as
+		// the unexpected-response case fixed above (CVE-2026-39830).
 	}
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/ssh/channel_defaultarm_test.go b/ssh/channel_defaultarm_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e0203548d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ssh/channel_defaultarm_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+// Copyright 2026 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package ssh
+
+import (
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// TestChannelUnexpectedDefaultMessagesDiscarded is the default-arm counterpart
+// of TestChannelUnexpectedResponsesDiscarded. A peer that spams messages which
+// fall through to the default arm of (*channel).handlePacket — e.g. a
+// service-request packet routed to a channel id — must not be able to fill
+// ch.msg on an open, idle channel and stall the single mux read loop.
+func TestChannelUnexpectedDefaultMessagesDiscarded(t *testing.T) {
+	clientMux, serverMux := muxPair()
+	defer serverMux.Close()
+	defer clientMux.Close()
+
+	serverRes := make(chan *channel, 1)
+	go func() {
+		newCh, ok := <-serverMux.incomingChannels
+		if !ok {
+			close(serverRes)
+			return
+		}
+		c, _, err := newCh.Accept()
+		if err != nil {
+			close(serverRes)
+			return
+		}
+		serverRes <- c.(*channel)
+	}()
+
+	clientCh, err := clientMux.openChannel("chan", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("openChannel: %v", err)
+	}
+	serverCh := <-serverRes
+	if serverCh == nil {
+		t.Fatal("server did not accept channel")
+	}
+
+	// Craft a packet that the client mux routes to clientCh (the channel id is
+	// read from packet[1:5]) and that decode() turns into a *serviceRequestMsg,
+	// hitting the default arm of handlePacket. For a serviceRequestMsg the bytes
+	// after the type byte are a length-prefixed string, so packet[1:5] (the
+	// string length) doubles as the routed channel id.
+	targetID := serverCh.remoteId // == clientCh.localId
+	pkt := []byte{msgServiceRequest}
+	pkt = binary.BigEndian.AppendUint32(pkt, targetID)
+	pkt = append(pkt, make([]byte, targetID)...)
+
+	// More than chanSize so ch.msg would overflow without the default-arm drop.
+	const spam = chanSize * 4
+	done := make(chan error, 1)
+	go func() {
+		for i := 0; i < spam; i++ {
+			if err := serverMux.conn.writePacket(pkt); err != nil {
+				done <- fmt.Errorf("writePacket %d: %w", i, err)
+				return
+			}
+		}
+		// Echo any legitimate request back.
+		for req := range serverCh.incomingRequests {
+			if req.WantReply {
+				if err := req.Reply(true, append([]byte("reply:"), req.Payload...)); err != nil {
+					done <- fmt.Errorf("reply: %w", err)
+					return
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		done <- nil
+	}()
+
+	// If the flood had wedged the client mux read loop, this SendRequest would
+	// never receive a reply.
+	ok, err := clientCh.SendRequest("ping", true, []byte("hello"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SendRequest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !ok {
+		t.Fatal("expected success reply")
+	}
+
+	clientCh.Close()
+	serverCh.Close()
+	if err := <-done; err != nil {
+		if !errors.Is(err, io.EOF) {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+}