CVE-2026-71402 wicked: out-of-bounds read in the DHCPv4 option parser due to payload length taken from the IP total length
An attacker on the same network can trigger an out-of-bounds read in wicked's DHCP client, potentially leaking heap memory contents into lease fields.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-71402?
CVE-2026-71402 is a medium-severity vulnerability in SUSE wicked, published on 27 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
An out-of-bounds read was found in the DHCPv4 packet capture code of wicked. ni_capture_inspect_udp_header() in src/capture.c reports the IP total length as the payload length instead of the length of the remaining UDP payload. Consequently, the DHCP option walker in the DHCPv4 client (wickedd-dhcp4) reads up to ihl + 8 bytes — at most 68 bytes — past the end of the 1500-byte packet receive buffer. An unauthenticated attacker on the same network who sends a crafted DHCP/UDP packet can make the client parse adjacent heap memory as DHCP options, so that heap contents such as allocator metadata or pointer values can be interpreted into lease fields. The over-read is bounded to 68 bytes; no memory write, no attacker control over the adjacent bytes and no remote exfiltration primitive has been demonstrated. This issue affects wicked up to and including version 0.6.80.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-71402?
How do I fix CVE-2026-71402?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-71402 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-71402 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-qwmv-r6fq-g9r3.