CVE-2009-0778: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.1. EPSS: 4.6% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The icmp_send function in net/ipv4/icmp.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.25, when configured as a router with a REJECT route, does not properly manage the Protocol Independent Destination Cache (aka DST) in some situations involving transmission of an ICMP Host Unreachable message, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (connectivity outage) by sending a large series of packets to many destination IP addresses within this REJECT route, related to an "rt_cache leak."

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: up to and including 2.6.24.7; version 2.6.0 only; version 2.6.1 only; version 2.6.2 only; version 2.6.3 only; version 2.6.4 only; …
• VMware Esx: version 2.5.5 only; version 3.0.3 only; version 3.5 only; version 4.0 only
• VMware Server: version 2.0.0 only
• VMware vCenter: version 4.0 only
• VMware Virtualcenter: version 2.0.2 only; version 2.5 only
• VMware Vma: version 4.0 only

Published 2009-03-12. Last modified 2026-06-16.