OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

BID:1723

Info

OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 1723
Class: Failure to Handle Exceptional Conditions
CVE:
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: Sep 17 2000 12:00AM
Updated: Sep 17 2000 12:00AM
Credit: Reported to OpenBSD developers on September 17, 2000. Posted to Bugtraq by Matthew Franz <[email protected]> on September 25, 2000.
Vulnerable: OpenBSD OpenBSD 2.7
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

IP Protocols are those which lay directly below the IP header, such as TCP, UDP and ICMP. Network drivers know what sub-IP protocol a packet belongs to by the protocol number value in its IP header. The method used to scan for what IP protocols are supported by a remote host, as employed by Nmap 2.54Beta, is trying various protocol numbers in the IP header and sending the IP packets to the target. Whether or not the host scanning recieves an ICMP protocol unreachable or not determines whether the protocol is supported (given that ICMP isn't filtered..). When a scan of this sort is launched against OpenBSD with IPSEC support, the victim host can crash. The reason for this is that OpenBSD can not handle "empty" AH/ESP packets (or what it believes is an AH/ESP packet, based on the protocol number). The end result is typically a kernel panic and denial of service, which can be caused remotely against a vulnerable OpenBSD host by an attacker armed only with nmap. Other BSDs and Linux are reportedly not vulnerable to this problem.

Exploit / POC

OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

Use nmap to scan protocols on the victim host.

Solution / Fix

OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

Solution:
A patch has been made available:


OpenBSD OpenBSD 2.7

References

OpenBSD "empty" AH/ESP Packet Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

References:
© CVE.report 2026 |

Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to this information or its use. Any use of this information is at the user's risk. It is the responsibility of user to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content. EACH USER WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY consequences of his or her direct or indirect use of this web site. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. This site will NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT or any other kind of loss.

CVE, CWE, and OVAL are registred trademarks of The MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. This site includes MITRE data granted under the following license.

Free CVE JSON API cve.report/api

CVE.report and Source URL Uptime Status status.cve.report