Security experts Thursday warned of a vulnerability in the Linux Kernel 2.4 branch, which can be exploited to cause denial-of-service (define) attacks. The hole in the popular open-source operating system was detected in the way the Linux Kernel handles caching of routing information. “By flooding a Linux system with packets with spoofed source addresses, the handling of the cache will consume large amounts of CPU power. This could potentially bring a Linux system offline with a rate of only 400 packets per second by using carefully chosen source addresses that causes hash collisions in the table,” according to an security advisory from U.K.-based Secunia. Secunia rated the flaw as “moderately critical” and cautioned that it could be exploited to bring a Linux system offline with a rate of only 400 packets per second by using carefully chosen source addresses that causes hash collisions in the table. Full Story