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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2010-4251 json

The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does not properly manage a backlog of received packets, whic…

published 15y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2010-4224

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.9%
EPSS 3.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 90%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does not properly manage a backlog of received packets, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by sending a large amount of network traffic, as demonstrated by netperf UDP tests.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 2.6.34
  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:0542RHSA-2011:0883RHSA-2011:0303

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2010-4251 updated cvss 6.1

kernel: unlimited socket backlog DoS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5.6.z server) kernel 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0303
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0542
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.0) perf 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-71.31.1.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0883
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-131.0.15.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0542

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

3.89% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 90% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.8 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.