Also called TCP sockstress, sockstress is a potentially serious generic issue in many operating systems that affects the availability of TCP services. It is believed that a DoS attackexploiting the sockstress vulnerability uses half-open connections to deplete resources in the machines under attack. It very quickly causes specific services to become unavailable and may even require complete machine reboots. The attack may be effective against almost anything on a network, including Windows, BSD, Linux, embedded systems TCP/IP stack implementations, and others.
May also be referred to as TCP state table manipulation vulnerability.
See also “TCP Sockstress Brings Forth New OS Exploit Worries” on ServerWatch.com.
