CVE-2003-0432 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Ethereal 0.9.12 and earlier does not handle certain strings properly, with unknown consequences, in the (1) BGP, (2) WTP, (3) DNS, (4) 802.11, (5) ISAKMP, (6) WSP, (7) CLNP, (8) ISIS, and (9) RMI dissectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/28/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2003-0432 represents a critical buffer overflow issue affecting Ethereal version 0.9.12 and earlier, which is a network protocol analyzer that was later renamed Wireshark. This flaw manifests in multiple protocol dissectors within the application's codebase, specifically targeting BGP, WTP, DNS, 802.11, ISAKMP, WSP, CLNP, ISIS, and RMI protocols. The improper handling of certain strings in these dissectors creates a condition where maliciously crafted network packets could trigger memory corruption during protocol analysis, potentially leading to application crashes or arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability's severity stems from the fact that Ethereal was commonly used by network administrators and security professionals for network traffic analysis, making it a prime target for exploitation in network-based attacks.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the application's failure to properly validate or sanitize input strings within its protocol parsing functions. When Ethereal encounters network traffic containing specially crafted strings in any of the affected protocols, the dissector functions attempt to process these inputs without adequate bounds checking or memory allocation controls. This results in buffer overflows that can overwrite adjacent memory locations, potentially corrupting the application's execution environment. The unknown consequences mentioned in the description indicate that the exact impact could vary depending on the specific memory corruption patterns and the operating system environment where the application runs, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it could be exploited in unpredictable ways.
The operational impact of CVE-2003-0432 extends beyond simple application instability, as it could enable attackers to execute arbitrary code on systems running vulnerable versions of Ethereal. Network administrators who rely on this tool for security monitoring and network troubleshooting face significant risk when analyzing traffic from potentially malicious sources. The vulnerability affects both the analysis capabilities and the security posture of systems using the affected software, as an attacker could craft malicious network packets specifically designed to exploit this flaw. This makes the vulnerability particularly concerning for security professionals who might inadvertently analyze compromised traffic, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The multi-protocol nature of the vulnerability increases the attack surface significantly, as attackers only need to find a single vulnerable protocol in their target network to exploit the flaw.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily involve immediate software updates to versions of Ethereal that have been patched to address the buffer overflow conditions in all affected protocol dissectors. Organizations should prioritize upgrading to the latest stable versions of the software, which would include proper bounds checking and input validation mechanisms. Additionally, network administrators should implement network segmentation and monitoring to prevent the analysis of untrusted network traffic, particularly when dealing with unknown or potentially malicious sources. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes buffer overflow conditions in stack-based buffers, and could potentially be leveraged through ATT&CK techniques such as T1059 for command execution or T1071 for application layer protocol usage. System hardening measures including stack protection mechanisms and address space layout randomization should also be implemented to reduce the exploitability of similar vulnerabilities in the future.