CVE-2023-39248VulnerabilityPublished 5 Dec 2023Updated 28 May 2025

CVE-2023-39248: Dell Networking OS10 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects Dell Networking OS10Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 52% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Dec 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Dell Dell Networking OS10	Affected =10.5.5.5	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

European organizations should prioritize upgrading Dell Networking OS10 switches to patched versions beyond 10.5.5.5 as soon as Dell releases a fix. Until patches are available, network administrators should consider the following mitigations: 1) Restrict network access to management interfaces and VLT/VRRP configurations using access control lists (ACLs) and segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. 2) Monitor network traffic for unusual flooding patterns indicative of exploitation attempts, using intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) and network behavior anomaly detection tools. 3) Implement rate limiting and traffic shaping on interfaces involved in VLT and VRRP to reduce the impact of potential flooding. 4) Regularly audit and review switch configurations to ensure minimal exposure and adherence to security best practices. 5) Establish incident response plans specifically addressing network DoS scenarios to minimize downtime. 6) Engage with Dell support for early access to patches or workarounds and stay informed on updates related to this CVE.

Description

Dell OS10 Networking Switches running 10.5.2.x and above contain an Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (Denial of Service) vulnerability, when switches are configured with VLT and VRRP. A remote unauthenticated user can cause the network to be flooded leading to Denial of Service for actual network users. This is a high severity vulnerability as it allows an attacker to cause an outage of network. Dell recommends customers to upgrade at the earliest opportunity.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk to network availability, particularly for enterprises, data centers, and service providers that utilize Dell Networking OS10 switches with VLT and VRRP configurations. A successful exploitation could lead to network outages, disrupting critical business operations, communications, and services. This is especially impactful for sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and government, where network uptime is crucial. The denial of service could also affect cloud service providers and managed service providers operating in Europe, potentially cascading to multiple clients. Given the remote and unauthenticated nature of the exploit, attackers could launch attacks from outside the organization, increasing the threat surface. The lack of impact on confidentiality and integrity means data breaches are unlikely, but the disruption to availability alone can cause significant operational and financial damage, including regulatory compliance issues under frameworks like GDPR if services are interrupted.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000220138/dsa-2023-278-dell-networking-os10-security-updates-for-uncontrolled-resource-consumption (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 7 Jul 2025, 08:11 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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