Linux kernel 2.4 and 2.6 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion and panic) by creating a large number of connected file descriptors or socketpairs and setting a large data transfer buffer, then preventing Linux from being able to finish the transfer by causing the process to become a zombie, or closing the file descriptor without closing an associated reference.
Publication date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 05:03:00 +0000