CVE-2003-0925 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in Ethereal 0.9.15 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via a malformed GTP MSISDN string.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/09/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2003-0925 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.9.15 and earlier releases. This vulnerability specifically targets the handling of GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol) MSISDN strings, which are used in mobile telecommunications networks to identify subscriber phone numbers. The flaw exists in the packet parsing logic where the application fails to properly validate the length of incoming GTP MSISDN data before attempting to copy it into fixed-size memory buffers.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a remote attacker crafts a malicious GTP packet containing an oversized MSISDN string that exceeds the allocated buffer space. When Ethereal processes this malformed packet, the insufficient bounds checking allows the data to overflow into adjacent memory locations, potentially corrupting critical program state information. This buffer overflow condition can be leveraged to either crash the application causing a denial of service or, in more sophisticated attacks, to inject and execute arbitrary code within the context of the Ethereal process. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects a widely used network analysis tool that is often deployed in production environments for monitoring and troubleshooting network traffic.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to network security operations and incident response capabilities. Organizations relying on Ethereal for network monitoring would experience complete service disruption when attackers exploit this flaw, potentially leading to extended periods of network visibility loss during critical security events. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this vulnerability without requiring physical access or local network presence, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network traffic analysis tools are deployed across multiple locations or in cloud-based monitoring scenarios.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes heap-based buffer overflow conditions, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter execution. Network security teams should implement immediate mitigations including updating to Ethereal version 0.10.0 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address the buffer overflow. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be strengthened to limit exposure of vulnerable systems, while implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify and block malformed GTP traffic patterns. Organizations should also consider deploying network protocol analysis tools with more robust memory management practices and regular security updates to prevent similar vulnerabilities from impacting their security infrastructure.