Remote code execution via malicious DHCP options

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Summary

CVECVE-2026-42511
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerfreebsd
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-04-30 07:16:37 UTC
Updated2026-04-30 07:16:37 UTC
DescriptionThe BOOTP file field is written to the lease file without escaping embedded double-quotes, allowing injection of arbitrary dhclient.conf directives. When the lease file is subsequently re-parsed by dhclient, e.g., after a system restart, an attacker-controlled field from the lease is passed to dhclient-script(8), which evaluates it. A rogue DHCP server may be able to execute arbirary code as root on a system running dhclient.

Risk And Classification

Problem Types: CWE-149 | CWE-149 CWE-149: Improper Neutralization of Quoting Syntax

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA FreeBSD FreeBSD affected 15.0-RELEASE p7 release Not specified
CNA FreeBSD FreeBSD affected 14.4-RELEASE p3 release Not specified
CNA FreeBSD FreeBSD affected 14.3-RELEASE p12 release Not specified
CNA FreeBSD FreeBSD affected 13.5-RELEASE p13 release Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-26:12.dhclient.asc [email protected] security.freebsd.org
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Joshua Rogers of AISLE Research Team (en)

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