What is CVE-2017-5972?

CVE-2017-5972 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2017-02-14.

How severe is CVE-2017-5972?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Resource exhaustion in Linux Kernel

CVE-2017-5972

The TCP stack in the Linux kernel 3.x does not properly implement a SYN cookie protection mechanism for the case of a fast network connection, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) by sending many TCP SYN packets, as demonstrated by an attack against the kernel-3.10.0 package in CentOS Linux 7. NOTE: third parties have been unable to discern any relationship between the GitHub Engineering finding and the Trigemini.c attack code.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

Published 2017-02-14 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.239 (97.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 98th percentile — 97.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.239 · newest: 0.239 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-400 — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

References

seclists.org/oss-sec/2017/q1/573 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41350/ (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, exploit)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
cxsecurity.com/issue/WLB-2017020112 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-5972 (Third Party Advisory)
githubengineering.com/syn-flood-mitigation-with-synsanity/ (Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/96231 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/141083/CentOS7-Kernel-Denial-Of-Service.html (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2017-5972 (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-5972?: CVE-2017-5972 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2017-02-14.
How severe is CVE-2017-5972?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.