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Vulnerability record · CVE-2015-8605 · published 14 January 2016

CVE-2015-8605: ISC DHCP invalid UDP length field causes denial of service

Sophos · Unified Threat Management Up2date

ISC DHCP 4.x before 4.1-ESV-R12-P1, 4.2.x, and 4.3.x before 4.3.3-P1 fails to properly validate the length field in a UDP IPv4 packet, allowing a remote attacker to crash the DHCP service. Because DHCP is a core network service, a crash can disrupt address assignment for clients on the affected segment.

6.5 CVSS 3.0 Medium EPSS 83% · top 0.3% CWE-20 · Improper input validation
6.5CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 5.7
83%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
4Affected product versions listed by NVD
24References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

ISC DHCP 4.x before 4.1-ESV-R12-P1, 4.2.x, and 4.3.x before 4.3.3-P1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via an invalid length field in a UDP IPv4 packet.

CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Automated analysis

Generated by VULONE's analysis model from the NVD record, CISA KEV and EPSS data on 18 September 2026. Confidence: high.

medium priorityCVSS rates this medium (6.5) with availability-only impact, but the very high EPSS score and wide deployment of ISC DHCP raise the practical risk.

What it is

ISC DHCP 4.x before 4.1-ESV-R12-P1, 4.2.x, and 4.3.x before 4.3.3-P1 fails to properly validate the length field in a UDP IPv4 packet, allowing a remote attacker to crash the DHCP service. Because DHCP is a core network service, a crash can disrupt address assignment for clients on the affected segment.

Impact

An attacker can cause the DHCP daemon to crash, producing a denial of service. The CVSS vector shows only availability impact (A:H) with no confidentiality or integrity loss.

Attack surface

The flaw is reached over an adjacent network via a crafted UDP IPv4 packet, per the CVSS vector AV:A. No authentication or user interaction is required (PR:N, UI:N).

Exploitation

CISA KEV does not list this CVE, but EPSS is very high at 0.827 (99.65th percentile), indicating elevated likelihood of exploitation activity. References are advisory and mailing-list entries only, with no public exploit tag.

What to do

  • Upgrade ISC DHCP to 4.1-ESV-R12-P1, 4.3.3-P1 or later as applicable to your branch.
  • Apply vendor updates for Debian, Ubuntu, Oracle and Sophos UTM up2date packages listed in the references.
  • Restrict DHCP traffic to trusted network segments and block UDP port 67/68 from untrusted sources at network boundaries.
  • Monitor DHCP service availability and configure automatic restart or failover to limit outage duration.

Detection

  • Alert on unexpected DHCP daemon crashes or restarts in system and service logs.
  • Monitor for malformed or anomalous UDP IPv4 packets with invalid length fields directed at DHCP ports 67/68.
  • Track DHCP service availability gaps that could indicate a successful denial-of-service attempt.

This assessment is produced automatically and is not human-reviewed. Verify against the vendor advisory before acting on it.

Affected products

4 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/175594.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/176031.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-02/msg00162.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-02/msg00168.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3442 Third Party Advisory
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2016-2867206.html Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/80703 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034657 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2868-1 Third Party Advisory
https://blogs.sophos.com/2016/02/17/utm-up2date-9-354-released/ Third Party Advisory
https://blogs.sophos.com/2016/02/29/utm-up2date-9-319-released/ Third Party Advisory
https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-01334 Vendor Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/175594.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/176031.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-02/msg00162.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-02/msg00168.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3442 Third Party Advisory
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2016-2867206.html Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/80703 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034657 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2868-1 Third Party Advisory
https://blogs.sophos.com/2016/02/17/utm-up2date-9-354-released/ Third Party Advisory
https://blogs.sophos.com/2016/02/29/utm-up2date-9-319-released/ Third Party Advisory
https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-01334 Vendor Advisory

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2015-8605), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.