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CVE-2017-3224

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine LSA recency in affected Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages)

8.2 High

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Adjacent network
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

1.06%Up 0.5 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 8.2

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Record
CVE-2017-3224
CVSS 3.0
8.2 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
4.3 MediumAV:A/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P
Weakness
CWE-354, CWE-345
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine LSA recency in affected Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages)

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Record
CVE-2017-3224
Weakness
CWE-354
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2017-12345 No score

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Record
EUVD-2017-12345
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-63cp-f7wp-c79r 8.2

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State...

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Record
GHSA-63cp-f7wp-c79r
CVSS 3.0
8.2 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-345
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-3224 8.2

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol implementations may improperly determine Link State Advertisement (LSA) recency for LSAs with MaxSequenceNumber. According to RFC 2328 section 13.1, for two instances of the same LSA, recency is determined by first comparing sequence numbers, then checksums, and finally MaxAge. In a case where the sequence numbers are the same, the LSA with the larger checksum is considered more recent, and will not be flushed from the Link State Database (LSDB). Since the RFC does not explicitly state that the values of links carried by a LSA must be the same when prematurely aging a self-originating LSA with MaxSequenceNumber, it is possible in vulnerable OSPF implementations for an attacker to craft a LSA with MaxSequenceNumber and invalid links that will result in a larger checksum and thus a 'newer' LSA that will not be flushed from the LSDB. Propagation of the crafted LSA can result in the erasure or alteration of the routing tables of routers within the routing domain, creating a denial of service condition or the re-routing of traffic on the network. CVE-2017-3224 has been reserved for Quagga and downstream implementations (SUSE, openSUSE, and Red Hat packages).

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-3224
CVSS 3.0
8.2 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
quagga
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
0.99.24.1-20.99.24.1-2ubuntu10.99.24.1-2ubuntu1.10.99.24.1-2ubuntu1.20.99.24.1-2ubuntu1.30.99.24.1-2ubuntu1.40.99.24.1-2ubuntu1.4+esm1
None known
quagga
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.1.1-31.1.1-3ubuntu11.2.2-11.2.2-1ubuntu11.2.4-11.2.4-1ubuntu0.1~esm11.2.4-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
None known
quagga
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.2.4-4build11.2.4-4ubuntu0.11.2.4-4ubuntu0.41.2.4-4ubuntu0.5
None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2017-3224 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.2) in Open Shortest Path First (ospf) Protocol, published July 24, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.06%, the 64th percentile. No source names a fixed version.

References

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