Executive brief
A vulnerability exists in the way certain operating systems handle fragmented network traffic. An attacker can send specially crafted data packets to a target system, causing it to crash or become unresponsive. This results in a denial of service, disrupting business operations and system availability.
Technical details
This vulnerability is a variation of the original 'Teardrop' IP fragmentation attack. It occurs during the IP reassembly process when the operating system's TCP/IP stack receives fragmented packets with overlapping offsets and inconsistent payload sizes. By sending these malformed fragments over the network, an unauthenticated attacker can trigger a kernel panic, system crash, or reboot. This is a network-based attack that requires no user interaction and targets the availability of the affected host.
Timeline
- 1997-12-16: disclosed