Remote denial of service via leaked fragment references
Published Mar 18, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Denial of service in Linux kernel act_ct allows remote attackers to crash hosts or exhaust memory with out-of-order IP fragments. Before defragmentation, act_ct increments skb->users; when fragments arrive out of order, no path releases the last fragment, leaking every fragment. The ingress path must already use act_ct, and the crash additionally requires a cloned, shared skb, as occurs with packet capture or typical act_ct and mirred pipelines.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in Linux kernel act_ct allows remote attackers to crash hosts or exhaust memory with out-of-order IP fragments. Before defragmentation, act_ct increments skb->users; when fragments arrive out of order, no path releases the last fragment, leaking every fragment. The ingress path must already use act_ct, and the crash additionally requires a cloned, shared skb, as occurs with packet capture or typical act_ct and mirred pipelines.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52610
- Published
- Mar 18, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 18, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.3
- Affected versionversion=b57dc7c13ea90e09ae15f821d2583fa0231b4935 <0b5b831122fc3789fff75be433ba3e4dd7b779d4
- Affected versionversion=b57dc7c13ea90e09ae15f821d2583fa0231b4935 <172ba7d46c202e679f3ccb10264c67416aaeb1c4
- Affected versionversion=b57dc7c13ea90e09ae15f821d2583fa0231b4935 <3f14b377d01d8357eba032b4cabc8c1149b458b6
- Affected versionversion=b57dc7c13ea90e09ae15f821d2583fa0231b4935 <73f7da5fd124f2cda9161e2e46114915e6e82e97
- Affected versionversion=b57dc7c13ea90e09ae15f821d2583fa0231b4935 <f5346df0591d10bc948761ca854b1fae6d2ef441
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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