Linux Kernel Vulnerability: IPv6 Sockets Local DoS

A kernel vulnerability has been found today by Masayuki Nakagawa, which can be exploited by local attackers to cause a denial of service (DoS) attack. This bug is due to an error in the "tcp_v6_syn_recv_soc()" a.k.a. net/ipv6/tcp_ipv6.c function where the IPv6 flow list (ipv6_fl_socklist) is shared with child sockets. This can be exploited by someone to crash an affected machine by manipulating listening IPv6 TCP sockets.

This vulnerability affects all 2.6 versions of the Linux Kernel and it is urgent for everybody to apply the following patch.

[PATCH 2.6.21-rc3] IPV6: ipv6_fl_socklist is inadvertently shared.

This issue has been rated as low risk and can only be exploitable locally and not remotely.

References for this kernel vulnerability can be found here and here.

The Linux Kernel is the essential part of all Linux Distributions, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security, simple communications, and basic file system management.

Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, initially written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

You can download the Linux kernel now from Softpedia.