CVE-2017-6444 Denial of service in n/a
Remote attackers can cause a denial of service on MikroTik hAP Lite routers by sending excessive TCP ACK packets, leading to 100% CPU usage and requiring a reboot.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2017-6444?
CVE-2017-6444 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Mikrotik Routeros, published on 12 Mar 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The MikroTik Router hAP Lite 6.25 has no protection mechanism for unsolicited TCP ACK packets in the case of a fast network connection, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) by sending many ACK packets. After the attacker stops the exploit, the CPU usage is 100% and the router requires a reboot for normal operation.
Weakness: CWE-400
Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-6444?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Mikrotik Routeros.
How do I fix CVE-2017-6444?
No fix has been published for CVE-2017-6444 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2017-6444 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6444 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.
Other vulnerabilities in Mikrotik Routeros
- CVE-2018-7445 MikroTik RouterOS Stack-Based Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2026-86060 MikroTik RouterOS Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command
- CVE-2018-14847 MikroTik Router OS Directory Traversal
- CVE-2026-67277 MikroTik RouterOS Missing Authentication for Critical Function
- CVE-2026-67279 Mikrotik RouterOS Improper Enforcement of Behavioral Workflow
Sources
Also known as GHSA-j46g-4x3w-74pw.