Infinite loop due to incorrect interaction of parse_packet() and parse_part_sign_sha256() functions :

Collectd contains an infinite loop due to how the parse_packet() and parse_part_sign_sha256() functions interact. If an instance of collectd is configured with 'SecurityLevel None' and with empty 'AuthFile' options an attacker can send crafted UDP packets that trigger the infinite loop, causing a denial of service.
(CVE-2017-7401)

Fix CVE-2017-7401 collectd: Infinite loop due to incorrect interaction of parse_packet() and parse_part_sign_sha256() functions. This is a bug in the network plugin.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora update system website.
Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

marcinguy reports :

After sending this payload, collectd seems to be entering endless while() loop in packet_parse consuming high CPU resources, possibly crash/gets killed after a while.

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-4793-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that collectd mishandled certain malformed packets. A remote attacker could use this     vulnerability to cause collectd to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2016-6254)

    It was discovered that collectd failed to handle certain input. An attacker could use this vulnerability     to cause collectd to crash. (CVE-2017-16820)

    It was discovered that collectd mishandles certain malformed network packets. A remote attacker could use     this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service or consume system resources. (CVE-2017-7401)

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

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

An update for collectd is now available for RHEV 4.X RHEV-H and Agents for RHEL-7 and RHEV Engine version 4.1.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

collectd is a small C-language daemon, which reads various system metrics periodically and updates RRD files (creating them if necessary). Because the daemon does not start up each time it updates files, it has a low system footprint.

The following packages have been upgraded to a newer upstream version:
collectd (5.7.1). (BZ#1446472)

Security Fix(es) :

* collectd contains an infinite loop due to how the parse_packet() and parse_part_sign_sha256() functions interact. If an instance of collectd is configured with 'SecurityLevel None' and with empty 'AuthFile' options an attacker can send crafted UDP packets that trigger the infinite loop, causing a denial of service.
(CVE-2017-7401)

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2018:2615 advisory.

    collectd is a host-based system statistics collection daemon that gathers metrics from various sources     periodically, such as the operating system, applications, log files and devices, and storage clusters. As     the daemon does not start up each time it updates files, it has a low system footprint.

    For Red Hat Gluster Storage Web Administration 3.4, collectd service is responsible for gathering metrics     from Red Hat Gluster Storage clusters.

    The updated collectd package includes the following security bug fixes.

    Security Fix(es):

    * collectd: Infinite loop due to incorrect interaction of parse_packet() and parse_part_sign_sha256()     functions (CVE-2017-7401)

    * collectd: double free in csnmp_read_table function in snmp.c (CVE-2017-16820)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related     information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

    This updated package contains a number of bug fixes and enhancements, which are documented in detail in     the Release Notes, linked in the References.

    All users of collectd are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

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

It was discovered that there was an infinite loop vulnerability in collectd, a statistics collection and monitoring daemon.

When a correct 'Signature part' is received by an instance configured without the AuthFile option, an endless loop occurs in the parse_packet routine due to a missing pointer increment to the next unprocessed part.

For Debian 7 'Wheezy', this issue has been fixed in collectd version 5.1.0-3+deb7u3.

We recommend that you upgrade your collectd packages.

NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
100274	Amazon Linux AMI : collectd (ALAS-2017-829)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	5/19/2017	12/18/2025	high
101671	Fedora 26 : collectd (2017-822d460ae2)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	7/17/2017	12/10/2025	high
101826	FreeBSD : collectd5 -- Denial of service by sending a signed network packet to a server which is not set up to check signatures (08a2df48-6c6a-11e7-9b01-2047478f2f70)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	7/20/2017	12/9/2025	high
99644	Fedora 25 : collectd (2017-80763c8c03)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	4/25/2017	12/23/2025	high
183566	Ubuntu 16.04 ESM : collectd vulnerabilities (USN-4793-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	10/20/2023	8/27/2024	critical
99678	Fedora 24 : collectd (2017-6b639afc9c)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	4/26/2017	12/23/2025	high
100454	RHEL 7 : collectd (RHSA-2017:1285)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	5/26/2017	12/17/2025	high
117321	RHEL 7 : collectd (RHSA-2018:2615)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	9/6/2018	4/15/2025	critical
99189	Debian DLA-884-1 : collectd security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	4/5/2017	12/26/2025	high

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