FreeBSD : FreeBSD -- TCP: remotely exploitable DoS vector (mbuf leak) (7aa913e9-28d1-11f1-b35e-bc241121aa0a)

high Nessus Plugin ID 303889

Synopsis

The remote FreeBSD host is missing one or more security-related updates.

Description

The version of FreeBSD installed on the remote host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the 7aa913e9-28d1-11f1-b35e-bc241121aa0a advisory.

When a challenge ACK is to be sent tcp_respond() constructs and sends the challenge ACK and consumes the mbuf that is passed in.
When no challenge ACK should be sent the function returns and leaks the mbuf.
If an attacker is either on path with an established TCP connection, or can themselves establish a TCP connection, to an affected FreeBSD machine, they can easily craft and send packets which meet the challenge ACK criteria and cause the FreeBSD host to leak an mbuf for each crafted packet in excess of the configured rate limit settings i.e. with default settings, crafted packets in excess of the first 5 sent within a 1s period will leak an mbuf.
Technically, off-path attackers can also exploit this problem by guessing the IP addresses, TCP port numbers and in some cases the sequence numbers of established connections and spoofing packets towards a FreeBSD machine, but this is harder to do effectively.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the FreeBSD security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?5615d7bb

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 303889

File Name: freebsd_pkg_7aa913e928d111f1b35ebc241121aa0a.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Published: 3/26/2026

Updated: 3/26/2026

Configuration: Enable paranoid mode

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-4247

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd, p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:freebsd-kernel

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Settings/ParanoidReport, Host/FreeBSD/release, Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/26/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/26/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-4247