Openindiana, kernel SunOS 5.11 has a denial of service vulnerability. For the processing of TCP packets with RST or SYN flag set, Openindiana has a wide acceptable range of sequence numbers. It does not require the sequence number to exactly match the next expected sequence value, just to be within the current receive window, which violates RFC5961. This flaw allows attackers to send multiple random TCP RST/SYN packets to hit the acceptable range of sequence numbers, thereby interrupting normal connections and causing a denial of service attack.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.