Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Network-reachable Modbus service, no auth or interaction (PR:N/UI:N), low complexity; impact is availability-only DoS with no confidentiality or integrity effect, giving A:H, C:N, I:N.
Primary rating from Vendor (mitre).
CVSS VectorVendor: mitre
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
A Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability exists in the receive loop of libmodbus 3.1.12 when running on Windows. The issue stems from improper timeout management during network read operations.
AnalysisAI
Denial of service in libmodbus 3.1.12 on Windows lets remote attackers exhaust or hang a Modbus application by abusing improper timeout handling in the TCP receive loop. Because CWE-400 resource mismanagement occurs during network reads, an unauthenticated peer can stall or crash the availability of Modbus master/slave processes built on the library. No CISA KEV listing exists and EPSS is low (0.15%), but a public gist referenced in the advisory likely carries proof-of-concept material, and CISA SSVC marks the flaw as automatable.
Technical ContextAI
libmodbus is a widely used cross-platform C library implementing the Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP protocols for SCADA/ICS and industrial IoT equipment, acting as the transport layer between masters (clients) and slaves (servers). The defect is classified CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) and lives in the library's receive loop, where timeout management during socket read operations is handled incorrectly on the Windows platform specifically - likely a difference between Winsock and POSIX select()/recv() timeout semantics. When timeouts are not enforced correctly, a read can block indefinitely or spin, tying up the process. The supplied CPE (cpe:2.3:a:n/a:n/a) is a placeholder and does not identify the product, so affected-component identification relies on the description naming libmodbus 3.1.12 and the upstream GitHub issue (#843).
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch or fixed tag is identified in the available data at time of analysis - the only upstream reference is issue tracker #843 (https://github.com/stephane/libmodbus/issues/843), not a tagged release, so track that issue and the libmodbus release notes for a patched version before upgrading. Until an official fix ships, apply network-layer compensating controls: restrict inbound access to the Modbus TCP port (default TCP/502) to an allowlist of trusted engineering-workstation IPs via host or perimeter firewall, and segment the ICS/OT network so Windows hosts running libmodbus are never directly reachable from IT or the internet (trade-off: none for legitimate isolated ICS, but breaks remote polling that crosses zones). Where feasible, front the service with a proxy or watchdog that enforces its own read timeout and auto-restarts hung processes, and set explicit application-level response/byte timeouts if the calling code exposes libmodbus timeout APIs. Review VulDB (https://vuldb.com/vuln/378182) and the NVD entry for updated fix information.
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Same weakness CWE-400 – Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
View allSame technique Denial Of Service
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-43605
GHSA-4fx8-wmg3-693v