Description
U-Boot through 2026.04-rc3 contains an integer underflow vulnerability in the tcp_rx_state_machine() function (net/tcp.c) that allows a network-adjacent attacker to crash the bootloader by sending a malformed TCP SYN+ACK packet with a manipulated data offset field causing payload_len to become negative. When the TCP_SYN_SENT handler calls tcp_rx_user_data() without invoking tcp_seg_in_wnd() validation, the negative payload_len is implicitly converted to a large unsigned integer (e.g., 0xFFFFFFD8) and passed to memcpy() in store_block(), causing an immediate crash that prevents device boot and may enable memory corruption when CONFIG_LMB is disabled.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| u-boot | u-boot | ≤ 2026.04-rc3 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 13 | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | u-boot +1 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | u-boot +1 | No fix yet | — |
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | u-boot | No fix yet | — |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-2306 DENX U-Boot: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Jul 13, 2026
References
- https://y637f9qq2x.com/posts/u-boot-tcp-nfs-vulns/ technical-description exploit
- Mailing List Outreach issue-tracking
- Project Webpage product
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/u-boot-rc3-integer-underflow-dos-via-tcp-rx-state-machine third-party-advisory