CVE-2016-3156
kernel: ipv4: denial of service when destroying a network interface
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 2.0
Review impact separately from score.
Published · March 15, 2016
Updated · June 28, 2026
Description
A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem that destroying the network interface with huge number of ipv4 addresses assigned keeps "rtnl_lock" spinlock for a very long time (up to hour). This blocks many network-related operations, including creation of new incoming ssh connections.
The problem is especially important for containers, as the container owner has enough permissions to trigger this and block a network access on a whole host, outside the container.
Statement
This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6. This has been rated as having Moderate security impact and is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates, as the Linux containers which the flaw affects are not supported in these products. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and MRG-2. Future Linux kernel updates for the respective releases might address this issue.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 2.0 · 1.7AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption