CVE-2006-2275 in Stream Control Transmission Protocol
Summary
by MITRE
Linux SCTP (lksctp) before 2.6.17 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (deadlock) via a large number of small messages to a receiver application that cannot process the messages quickly enough, which leads to "spillover of the receive buffer."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/21/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2006-2275 represents a critical denial of service weakness in the Linux Stream Control Transmission Protocol implementation known as lksctp. This flaw affects systems running Linux kernel versions prior to 2.6.17 and specifically targets the SCTP protocol handling mechanism that governs how data is transmitted and received across network connections. The vulnerability operates through a sophisticated buffer management issue that can be exploited remotely by attackers who send carefully crafted sequences of small messages to a target system.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper handling of receive buffer spillover conditions within the lksctp subsystem. When a receiver application cannot process incoming SCTP messages at the rate they are received, the kernel's buffer management mechanism fails to properly handle the overflow condition that occurs. This creates a deadlock scenario where the system becomes unresponsive and unable to process additional network traffic. The vulnerability specifically manifests when attackers send a large volume of small SCTP messages that collectively exceed the receiver's processing capacity, causing the kernel to enter a state where it cannot properly manage the buffer spillover and subsequently becomes unresponsive to further network operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass complete system unavailability and potential network paralysis. Attackers can leverage this weakness to systematically consume system resources and create persistent denial of service conditions that can affect critical network services. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers do not need local access to the target system, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where SCTP services are exposed to external traffic. Organizations running affected kernel versions face significant risk of operational disruption, especially in environments where SCTP is used for mission-critical communications such as telephony signaling, financial transactions, or industrial control systems.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK framework techniques including TA0043 (Reconnaissance) and TA0005 (Defense Evasion) as attackers may initially probe for vulnerable systems before deploying the specific payload. The vulnerability also relates to CWE-400 which describes unchecked resource consumption and CWE-121 which addresses buffer overflow conditions. The mitigation strategy involves upgrading to Linux kernel version 2.6.17 or later where the buffer management issues have been resolved through improved handling of receive buffer spillover conditions. Organizations should also implement network-level protections such as rate limiting and connection tracking mechanisms to reduce the impact of such attacks while awaiting patch deployment. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual patterns of SCTP traffic that might indicate exploitation attempts, and administrators should regularly review system logs for evidence of buffer overflow conditions or deadlock scenarios that could indicate successful exploitation of this vulnerability.