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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Gain adjacency to cluster multicast network
  2. Delivery
    craft fragmented Totem protocol multicast messages
  3. Exploit
    send crafted fragments to cluster nodes
  4. Execution
    trigger reassembly buffer overflow in totempg
  5. Persist
    corrupt Corosync daemon heap
  6. Impact
    daemon crash causes cluster-wide DoS

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Heap buffer bounds checking
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Execution

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

The attacker must be network-adjacent - specifically able to send IP multicast packets to the Corosync cluster's heartbeat multicast group (default 226.94.1.1, UDP port 5405) and receive responses. This requires L2 adjacency or multicast routing to the cluster's dedicated HA network. No authentication is required (PR:N). The vulnerability is present in release builds of Corosync as shipped by Red Hat; debug builds with bounds-checking assertions may not be vulnerable. The cluster must be actively processing fragmented Totem messages. Exploitation is limited by AC:H - crafting a payload that triggers the specific overflow condition and controlling heap layout for potential code execution requires attacker expertise and knowledge of the Corosync memory allocator state.

Impact

The provided CVSS vector (AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, score 7.5) correctly reflects network-adjacent access and high complexity, but the C:H and I:H metrics appear aspirational - the description's language ('may potentially allow further exploitation') indicates DoS is the confirmed outcome and RCE is speculative. A more conservative independent assessment yields C:N/I:N/A:H. The AC:H rating is appropriate: exploiting a heap overflow to achieve predictable code execution requires careful heap-layout manipulation, making reliable RCE significantly harder than the DoS primitive. The AV:A constraint is a meaningful real-world limiter - an attacker must be on the same Layer-2 multicast domain as the Corosync cluster nodes, which in most deployments is a dedicated, firewalled HA heartbeat network. No EPSS data was provided; no KEV listing and no POC exist, making active exploitation unlikely in the near term. For clusters where the heartbeat network is co-located with untrusted segments or accessible to virtual machines, risk is substantially elevated. For properly segmented HA clusters, exploitation opportunity is limited.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker with access to the cluster's multicast network segment - for example, a compromised virtual machine sharing the same L2 segment as cluster heartbeat interfaces - crafts a sequence of fragmented Totem protocol multicast messages whose reassembled payload exceeds the reassembly buffer bounds. Sending these packets causes heap corruption in the Corosync daemon process, immediately crashing it and triggering a full cluster quorum loss and service failover cascade. With precise heap control, a sophisticated attacker might attempt to redirect execution, though no proof-of-concept demonstrating this has been identified.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 04, 2026

Heap buffer overflow in Corosync's Totem Process Group (totempg) message reassembly exposes high-availability clusters to network-adjacent unauthenticated attack. When processing fragmented multicast messages, the reassembly buffer lacks runtime bounds checking in release builds, allowing an attacker on the same cluster network to trigger heap corruption with attacker-controlled data. The confirmed impact is a daemon crash causing full cluster denial-of-service; the description explicitly acknowledges the potential for further exploitation - including possible code execution - contingent on heap layout control, though RCE remains unconfirmed at time of analysis. No public exploit or KEV listing identified.

RemediationAI

Apply the Red Hat-issued errata for Corosync when published for the applicable RHEL or OpenShift release stream; monitor https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-81665 for patch availability. No specific fixed version was confirmed in the provided data. Until a patch is available, the most effective compensating control is strict network segmentation: restrict multicast traffic on the Corosync heartbeat network (typically UDP multicast on port 5405) to only the IP addresses of legitimate cluster nodes using host-based firewall rules (firewalld zone isolation or iptables) and switch-level VLAN segregation. This eliminates the AV:A attack surface entirely for external threats. If ring redundancy allows it, disabling multicast in favor of unicast configuration reduces the multicast attack surface, though this changes cluster communication behavior and should be validated in a lab environment first. On RHEL, running Corosync under a seccomp or SELinux policy that limits heap execution can raise the bar for RCE exploitation while having no effect on the DoS risk.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

Corosync is an open-source cluster membership and messaging layer, widely deployed alongside Pacemaker in Linux high-availability environments. Its Totem Single Ring Order and Membership (TORUM) protocol, implemented via the totempg subsystem, uses IP multicast for intra-cluster communication. CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow) identifies the root cause: when reassembling fragmented multicast messages, the destination buffer does not perform runtime length validation, and this check is absent specifically in release builds (suggesting a debug-only guard or assertion that is compiled out). CPE data confirms the vulnerable package is shipped across Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10, as well as Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4, which relies on Corosync for cluster quorum.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 5.3 MEDIUM

Confirmed impact is daemon crash (DoS); RCE is speculative, so C and I are N; AV:A and AC:H accurately reflect multicast adjacency and heap-exploitation complexity.

3.1 AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:A/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE HIGH
Red Hat 7.5 HIGH

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

Attack Vector
Adjacent
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

A heap-based buffer overflow was found in Corosync's Totem Process Group (totempg) message reassembly. When processing fragmented multicast messages, the buffer used to reassemble fragments lacks a runtime bounds check in release builds. A network-adjacent attacker able to send crafted multicast protocol messages to the cluster could cause a heap buffer overflow with attacker-controlled data. This can crash the Corosync daemon, causing a denial of service to the entire cluster, and may potentially allow further exploitation given sufficient heap-corruption control.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Corosync-based high-availability infrastructure faces operational risk from a network-based vulnerability that can disable entire cluster systems, disrupting all dependent applications and services. Organizations must implement network isolation immediately to prevent cluster-wide outages until vendor remediation is available.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Restrict cluster multicast and network access to authorized cluster nodes only via firewall or network policies; implement network-level rate limiting on cluster communication ports; enable comprehensive audit logging and real-time alerting on Corosync daemon activity for unusual message patterns; maintain current backups and regularly test failover procedures to minimize impact if cluster compromise occurs.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 89% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
standard HA clustering layer on enterprise RHEL deployments
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Controlled
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

38
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.

A heap overflow occurs when a program writes data beyond the bounds of a buffer allocated in the heap memory region.

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP4 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP5 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected

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