VulnerabilityPublished 5 May 2024Updated 2 Aug 2024

CVE-2024-34488: Faucet SDN Ryu · Infinite Loop

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 16:39 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.6% 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 May 2024
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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-34488, organizations should first monitor network traffic for anomalous OpenFlow multipart reply messages, particularly those with suspiciously small or zero-length fields. Deploy network-level filtering or rate limiting on OpenFlow control channels to restrict or block malformed packets. If possible, isolate SDN controllers from untrusted networks and restrict access to management interfaces using firewall rules and network segmentation. Until an official patch is released, consider applying temporary workarounds such as disabling or limiting multipart reply message handling if feasible. Engage with the Faucet SDN community or vendor for updates and patches, and plan for rapid deployment once available. Implement robust logging and alerting on the SDN controller to detect abnormal parser behavior or resource usage spikes. Conduct regular security assessments of SDN infrastructure and maintain incident response readiness for potential denial of service events. Avoid exposing SDN controllers directly to the internet or untrusted networks to reduce attack vectors.

Description

OFPMultipartReply in parser.py in Faucet SDN Ryu 4.34 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via b.length=0.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-34488 is a denial of service condition that can disrupt network management and control functions in environments using Faucet SDN Ryu 4.34. By triggering an infinite loop in the controller's parser, attackers can exhaust CPU and memory resources, potentially causing the controller to become unresponsive or crash. This disruption can lead to loss of network visibility, inability to enforce network policies, and degraded network performance or outages. Organizations relying on SDN for critical infrastructure, including data centers, cloud providers, and large enterprises, may experience significant operational impacts. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact limits data breach risks, but availability loss in network control can cascade into broader service disruptions. Since exploitation requires no authentication and can be performed remotely, the attack surface is broad, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic attacks. The absence of known exploits currently reduces immediate risk but does not diminish the urgency for mitigation.

References

github.com/faucetsdn/ryu/issues/191 (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 04:46 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-835

Technical details

References

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