Intel's busted Puma 6 cable modem chipset is the gift that just keeps on giving. We'd already pointed out how the chipset has been causing all manner of latency and connectivity issues for users, resulting in a lawsuit against Arris. And while the flaw still hasn't been fixed, users in our forums have noted another problem caused by the flaw: devices that use the Intel Puma 6 chipset can be knocked offline using a relatively trivial attack (ab)using the chipset issues.

More specifically, users in our forums note that three to six thousand small, even zero-size, TCP or UDP packets sent to impact devices exhausts an internal lookup table in the chipset, slowly the entire device's performance as the hardware's CPU struggles under what should ordinarily be a modest load.

Ironically, many of the impacted devices are advertised as next-generation products capable of gigabit speeds, yet can be completely disabled with just a small trickle of data. The attack can be conducted remotely, and impacted devices will remain offline for the duration of the attack. And again, this was on top of the performance issues already being experienced by owners of these flawed devices.

It's still not entirely clear how many devices are impacted by the Puma 6 chipset flaw, but Netgear has issued a statement saying it's aware of the problem in its CM700 gateway.

"NETGEAR is aware of a security vulnerability that can potentially allow an attacker to slow or stop your network access," says the company. "This vulnerability does not pose a risk for data loss or access to your network. No workaround is available at this time. NETGEAR is working to evaluate this vulnerability and will update this knowledge base article as more information becomes available."