CVE-2026-88833Busybox: busybox: udhcpc integer underflow in dhcp packet length calculation causes denial of service
- 6.5MediumCVSS base score
- 0.19%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 91% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
A flaw was found in BusyBox's udhcpc DHCP client. When processing raw DHCP packets, the client replaces the validated packet length with an attacker-controlled value from the IP header without re-validating the minimum size. This leads to an integer underflow when subtracting header sizes, causing a subsequent memory copy with a massively oversized length. An attacker on the same network segment can send a specially crafted packet to crash the DHCP client, resulting in denial of service and loss of network connectivity.
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 33 days later
· 33 days later
Published
- 27 days later
· 27 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhatCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.19% · top 91% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Affected products
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
All versions: unknown
Red Hat · Red Hat Hardened Images
All versions: affected
What to do
Workaround: If feasible, use udhcpc in LISTEN_KERNEL mode instead of LISTEN_RAW, or use an alternative DHCP client (dhclient, systemd-networkd). Restrict DHCP traffic on the local segment (for example DHCP snooping on switches).
References
References2
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-88833 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2531347 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-98897 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-88833)Record last updated .