Vulnerability · Published Aug 11, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-72712Nmap 7.99 Denial of Service via Zero-Length TCP Option Packet

Medium 6.5

In plain English

A medium-severity infinite loop in Nmap from Nmap Project. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 43% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.5Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.5%top 57.0% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Nmap versions up to and including 7.99 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows remote attackers to crash the application by sending a crafted packet containing a zero-length TCP option. The malformed packet forces the Packet:parse_options() function in nselib/packet.lua to allocate objects in an infinite loop, causing an out-of-memory condition that results in application crash.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Debian:12	nmap	no fix listed	DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72712
Debian:13	nmap	no fix listed	DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72712
Debian:14	nmap	no fix listed	DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72712
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS	nmap	no fix listed	UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72712
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS	nmap	no fix listed	UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72712
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS	nmap	no fix listed	UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72712
Ubuntu:26.10	nmap	no fix listed	UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72712

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
Nmap Project	Nmap	0 – through 7.99

Weakness: CWE-835 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

Product Repository product
GitHub Issue issue-tracking
Patch Commit patch
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nmap-denial-of-service-via-zero-length-tcp-option-packet third-party-advisory