6.5 MEDIUM
- CVSS version (CVSS): 3.1
- Attack Vector (AV): Adjacent (A)
- Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L)
- Privileges Required (PR): None (N)
- User Interaction (UI): None (N)
- Scope (S): Unchanged (U)
- Confidentiality (C): None (N)
- Integrity (I): None (N)
- Availability (A): High (H)
- Modified Attack Vector (MAV): Adjacent (A)
- Modified Attack Complexity (MAC): Low (L)
- Modified Privileges Required (MPR): None (N)
- Modified User Interaction (MUI): None (N)
- Modified Confidentiality (MC): None (N)
- Modified Scope (MS): Unchanged (U)
- Modified Integrity (MI): None (N)
- Modified Availability (MA): High (H)
by @LeSuisse Activity log
- Created suggestion
- @LeSuisse dismissed (not in Nixpkgs)
IPv6 Neighbor Solicitation packet leak causes TX pool exhaustion denial of service
net_ipv6_send_ns() in subsys/net/ip/ipv6_nbr.c allocates a transmit net_pkt for a Neighbor Solicitation. When it is called with a data packet pending on an unresolved neighbor and that neighbor's pending_queue is already non-empty (an NS is already outstanding), the function appends the data packet and returns early without ever sending the NS via net_send_data() or releasing it with net_pkt_unref(). The freshly allocated NS net_pkt and its attached TX buffers are held only by a local variable and are leaked permanently, never returning to CONFIG_NET_PKT_TX_COUNT / CONFIG_NET_BUF_TX_COUNT. The leaking branch sits on the normal IPv6 transmit path: net_ipv6_prepare_for_send() (called from net_if.c) invokes net_ipv6_send_ns() for any outbound or forwarded IPv6 packet whose next hop is not yet in the neighbor cache. An on-link (adjacent) attacker can drive it deterministically by sending a burst of request packets (for example ICMPv6 echo requests or UDP datagrams) that all spoof a single non-existent on-link source address: the node generates a reply to each, the first reply queues an NS, and every subsequent reply during the roughly three-second INCOMPLETE resolution window takes the leaking branch and loses one TX packet. Router-configured nodes forwarding attacker traffic toward a non-existent on-link host leak identically. Because the leaked packets are never reclaimed and CONFIG_NET_PKT_TX_COUNT defaults to only 4 (14 for Ethernet), a brief low-rate burst exhausts the TX pool. Once exhausted the node can no longer allocate any transmit packet and cannot send TCP/UDP, ARP/ND, or any reply at all, producing a complete and persistent network denial of service that does not self-heal until reboot. The fix releases the unsent NS packet with net_pkt_unref(pkt) before the early return.
References
Affected products
- <4.4.2
Matching in nixpkgs
pkgs.python313Packages.smoke-zephyr
Python utility collection
pkgs.python314Packages.smoke-zephyr
Python utility collection
pkgs.python313Packages.zephyr-python-api
Set of wrappers for Zephyr Scale (TM4J) REST API
pkgs.python314Packages.zephyr-python-api
Set of wrappers for Zephyr Scale (TM4J) REST API
pkgs.python313Packages.zephyr-test-management
Wrappers for both Zephyr Scale and Zephyr Squad (TM4J) REST APIs
Package maintainers
-
@fabaff Fabian Affolter <mail@fabian-affolter.ch>
-
@Steinhagen Viorel-Cătălin Răpițeanu <rapiteanu.catalin@gmail.com>