CVE-2010-4251: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.5. EPSS: 3.9% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does not properly manage a backlog of received packets, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by sending a large amount of network traffic, as demonstrated by netperf UDP tests.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: before 2.6.34 (fixed in 2.6.34)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: version 4.0 only
• VMware Esx: version 4.0 only; version 4.1 only

Published 2011-05-26. Last modified 2026-06-16.