Integer Underflow Vulnerability in BusyBox's DHCP Client
CVE-2026-88833

6.5MEDIUM

Key Information:

Vendor

Red Hat
Status
Red Hat Hardened Images
Vendor
CVE Published:
13 October 2026

What is CVE-2026-88833?

A vulnerability exists in BusyBox's udhcpc DHCP client, where it incorrectly processes raw DHCP packets. The flaw allows an attacker to replace the validated packet length with a malicious value derived from the IP header. This oversight leads to an integer underflow during the subtraction of header sizes, which can cause the client to perform an unsafe memory copy operation with an excessively large length. An attacker positioned on the same network segment can exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted DHCP packet, potentially crashing the client and resulting in loss of network connectivity.

References

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-88833
vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2531347
issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT

CVSS V3.1

Score:
6.5
Severity:
MEDIUM
Confidentiality:
None
Integrity:
None
Availability:
None
Attack Vector:
Adjacent Network
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
None
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Unchanged

Timeline

  • Vulnerability published

  • Vulnerability Reserved

Credit

Red Hat would like to thank Shubham Raj (Causal Security) for reporting this issue.
.