SACK can cause extensive memory use via fragmented resend queue

Description

Jonathan Looney discovered that the TCP retransmission queue implementation in tcp_fragment in the Linux kernel could be fragmented when handling certain TCP Selective Acknowledgment (SACK) sequences. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. This has been fixed in stable kernel releases 4.4.182, 4.9.182, 4.14.127, 4.19.52, 5.1.11, and is fixed in commit f070ef2ac66716357066b683fb0baf55f8191a2e.

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

94.7% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.

Weakness

• CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-770 and its CVEs
• CWE-400 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-400 and its CVEs

Affected products

• Linux · Linux kernel

  • affected 4.4 – < 4.4.182
  • affected 4.9 – < 4.9.182
  • affected 4.14 – < 4.14.127
  • affected 4.19 – < 4.19.52
  • affected 5.1 – < 5.1.11

References (29)

• VU#905115 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_CERT-VNx_transferred
• RHSA-2019:1594 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
• RHSA-2019:1602 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20190628 Re: linux-distros membership application - Microsoft (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20190706 Re: linux-distros membership application - Microsoft (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20190706 Re: linux-distros membership application - Microsoft (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• RHSA-2019:1699 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
• 20190722 [SECURITY] [DSA 4484-1] linux security update (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20191023 Membership application for linux-distros - VMware (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20191029 Re: Membership application for linux-distros - VMware (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2020.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://github.com/Netflix/security-bulletins/blob/master/advisories/third-party/2019-001.md (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/SACKPanic (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/tcpsack (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/153346/Kernel-Live-Patch-Security-Notice-LSN-0052-1.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://kb.pulsesecure.net/articles/Pulse_Security_Advisories/SA44193 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://www.synology.com/security/advisory/Synology_SA_19_28 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190625-0001/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10287 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2019-0010.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-462066.pdf (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://www.us-cert.gov/ics/advisories/icsa-19-253-03 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154951/Kernel-Live-Patch-Security-Notice-LSN-0058-1.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/alert/ARUBA-PSA-2020-010.txt (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net.git/commit/?id=f070ef2ac66716357066b683fb0baf55f8191a2e (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K26618426 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2019-0007 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154408/Kernel-Live-Patch-Security-Notice-LSN-0055-1.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2019-11478](https://trackcve.app/badge/CVE-2019-11478.svg)](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2019-11478)

Record last updated 16 Sept 2024, 23:45 UTC.