Infinite loop in nmap - CVE-2026-72712
Published: August 21, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU144539
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 5.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-72712
CWE-ID: CWE-835
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 infinite loop when handling packets containing a zero-length TCP option. A remote attacker can send specially crafted TCP response to the nmap scanner and perform a denial of service attack.
Affected software
nmap
Anolis OS
nmap
nmap-ncat
nmap-frontend
nmap-ndiff
nmap-doc
Anolis OS
nmap
nmap-ncat
nmap-frontend
nmap-ndiff
nmap-doc
How to mitigate CVE-2026-72712
Install updates from vendor's website.
nmap - update to 7.991
nmap - update to 7.94-3
nmap-ncat - update to 7.94-3
nmap-frontend - update to 7.94-3
nmap-ndiff - update to 7.94-3
nmap-doc - update to 7.94-3
nmap - update to 7.94-3
nmap-ncat - update to 7.94-3
nmap-frontend - update to 7.94-3
nmap-ndiff - update to 7.94-3
nmap-doc - update to 7.94-3