Service interruption via duplicate LLDP TLV leak
Published Mar 18, 2021 · Updated Dec 3, 2025
Uncontrolled resource consumption in Open vSwitch and lldpd allows remote attackers to exhaust memory with crafted LLDP packets. In the shared LLDP decoder, lldp_decode allocates a buffer for each optional port-description, system-name, or system-description TLV, then overwrites the stored pointer when the same TLV recurs without freeing the earlier allocation. The attack requires LLDP processing on the target interface; Open vSwitch disables that processing by default, and repeated packets can interrupt service.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled resource consumption in Open vSwitch and lldpd allows remote attackers to exhaust memory with crafted LLDP packets. In the shared LLDP decoder, lldp_decode allocates a buffer for each optional port-description, system-name, or system-description TLV, then overwrites the stored pointer when the same TLV recurs without freeing the earlier allocation. The attack requires LLDP processing on the target interface; Open vSwitch disables that processing by default, and repeated packets can interrupt service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2020-27827
- Published
- Mar 18, 2021
- Updated
- Dec 3, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 18, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 3, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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What is affected?
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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