CVE-2026-120033
frr: bgpd Send Hold Timer expiry bypasses the FSM, leaving a phantom Established session or crashing bgpd with Graceful Restart
Description
In FRRouting 10.1 and later, bgpd does not correctly close a BGP session when the Send Hold Timer (RFC 9687) expires, i.e. when a neighbor has stopped accepting data from the router for twice the hold time. The connection is closed, but bgpd still considers the session to be up. A BGP neighbor that keeps sending KEEPALIVEs but stops reading from its connection, at a time when the router has a large amount of data to send to it (for example while sending it a full routing table), can cause one of the following: * If the neighbor announced Graceful Restart support: bgpd crashes shortly after the session is closed (after the neighbor's announced restart time plus one keepalive interval), taking down all BGP sessions on the router. The neighbor can repeat this each time bgpd restarts. * Otherwise: the session stays stuck in the Established state. The neighbor's routes stay installed and keep being advertised to other peers, and the neighbor cannot reconnect until an operator runs "clear bgp <neighbor>". The neighbor does not need to be malicious; an overloaded or stuck peer can trigger the same behavior. Required configuration: no special configuration is needed. Any BGP neighbor with an established session can trigger the issue under default settings, for example: router bgp 65001 neighbor 192.0.2.2 remote-as 65002 Graceful Restart helper mode, which leads to the crash, is enabled by default. With default timers (keepalive 60s, hold time 180s), the session is closed about 6 minutes after the neighbor stops reading.
INFO
Published Date :
Nov. 12, 2026, 7:16 p.m.
Last Modified :
Nov. 12, 2026, 7:16 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
Yes !
Source :
57a55968-44ac-464c-a794-6ba3baad09c4
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM | 57a55968-44ac-464c-a794-6ba3baad09c4 | ||||
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM | 57a55968-44ac-464c-a794-6ba3baad09c4 |
Solution
- Update FRRouting to the latest version.
- Ensure BGP sessions are properly closed.
- Monitor BGP session stability.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-120033.
| URL | Resource |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/FRRouting/frr/pull/23945/changes/57a7f3eb48837359d6e3ee5ebd4acea8f49320e5 |
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-120033 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-120033
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-120033 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-120033 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
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New CVE Received by 57a55968-44ac-464c-a794-6ba3baad09c4
Nov. 12, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description In FRRouting 10.1 and later, bgpd does not correctly close a BGP session when the Send Hold Timer (RFC 9687) expires, i.e. when a neighbor has stopped accepting data from the router for twice the hold time. The connection is closed, but bgpd still considers the session to be up. A BGP neighbor that keeps sending KEEPALIVEs but stops reading from its connection, at a time when the router has a large amount of data to send to it (for example while sending it a full routing table), can cause one of the following: * If the neighbor announced Graceful Restart support: bgpd crashes shortly after the session is closed (after the neighbor's announced restart time plus one keepalive interval), taking down all BGP sessions on the router. The neighbor can repeat this each time bgpd restarts. * Otherwise: the session stays stuck in the Established state. The neighbor's routes stay installed and keep being advertised to other peers, and the neighbor cannot reconnect until an operator runs "clear bgp <neighbor>". The neighbor does not need to be malicious; an overloaded or stuck peer can trigger the same behavior. Required configuration: no special configuration is needed. Any BGP neighbor with an established session can trigger the issue under default settings, for example: router bgp 65001 neighbor 192.0.2.2 remote-as 65002 Graceful Restart helper mode, which leads to the crash, is enabled by default. With default timers (keepalive 60s, hold time 180s), the session is closed about 6 minutes after the neighbor stops reading. Added CVSS V4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:N/R:A/V:X/RE:X/U:X Added CWE CWE-372 Added CWE CWE-617 Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/120xxx/CVE-2026-120033.json">CVE-2026-120033</a> Added Reference https://github.com/FRRouting/frr/pull/23945/changes/57a7f3eb48837359d6e3ee5ebd4acea8f49320e5