Boot interruption via unbounded DHCP option scan
Published May 11, 2026 · Updated May 11, 2026
Out-of-bounds read in DHCP parsing in barebox before 2026.04.0 allows attackers to interrupt boot with a crafted reply. The dhcp_message_type() loop advances through received option TLVs until it finds a 0xff marker but never checks the pointer against the packet's actual end. Reachability requires barebox to be performing DHCP on the same broadcast domain as a rogue responder; the resulting over-read can fault and halt the boot process.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds read in DHCP parsing in barebox before 2026.04.0 allows attackers to interrupt boot with a crafted reply. The dhcp_message_type() loop advances through received option TLVs until it finds a 0xff marker but never checks the pointer against the packet's actual end. Reachability requires barebox to be performing DHCP on the same broadcast domain as a rogue responder; the resulting over-read can fault and halt the boot process.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-34960
- Published
- May 11, 2026
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- Pengutronix
- Product
- barebox
- Classifications
- CWE-125, CAPEC-540, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 11, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 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=0 <=2026.04.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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
- Malformed DHCP reply demonstrationproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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