CVE-2026-3608

High

Published: 25 March 2026

Published

25 March 2026

Modified

25 March 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0001 1.3th percentile

Risk Priority 15 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2026-3608 is a high-severity Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 1.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of the stack overflow flaw by upgrading to patched Kea versions 2.6.5 or 3.0.3.

SI-16 Memory Protection good match

prevent

Implements memory protections such as stack canaries, ASLR, and non-executable stacks to prevent exploitation of the stack overflow vulnerability.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Validates all incoming messages to API sockets and HA listeners to reject maliciously crafted inputs that trigger the stack overflow.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Remote unauthenticated network exploitation of exposed API/HA listeners in Kea daemons directly enables T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) for initial access and T1499.004 (Application or System Exploitation) to crash the service and achieve DoS.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

Sending a maliciously crafted message to the kea-ctrl-agent, kea-dhcp-ddns, kea-dhcp4, or kea-dhcp6 daemons over any configured API socket or HA listener can cause the receiving daemon to exit with a stack overflow error. This issue affects Kea versions 2.6.0 through…

2.6.4 and 3.0.0 through 3.0.2.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2026-3608 is a stack overflow vulnerability in the Kea DHCP server software, triggered by sending a maliciously crafted message to the kea-ctrl-agent, kea-dhcp-ddns, kea-dhcp4, or kea-dhcp6 daemons over any configured API socket or HA listener. This causes the receiving daemon to exit abruptly. The issue affects Kea versions 2.6.0 through 2.6.4 and 3.0.0 through 3.0.2, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and is associated with CWE-617.

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction. By delivering a specially crafted message to an exposed API socket or HA listener, an unauthenticated adversary can cause a denial-of-service condition, crashing the targeted daemon and potentially disrupting DHCP services.

ISC advisories recommend upgrading to Kea 2.6.5 or 3.0.3, available at the project's download pages, to mitigate the vulnerability. Additional details are provided in the ISC knowledge base article at kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2026-3608 and the oss-security mailing list announcement.