Uncontrolled recursion in Linux kernel - CVE-2016-8666
Published: October 17, 2016 / Updated: December 8, 2025
Vulnerability identifier: #VU1002
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 8.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2016-8666
CWE-ID: CWE-674
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.
The vulnerability exists due to uncontrollable recursion when parsing IPv4 and GRE headers. A remote attacker can force the kernel to use GRO path for packets with tunnel stacking and perform a denial of service attack.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2016-8666
Install update from vendor's website.