CVE-2004-0505 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
The AIM dissector in Ethereal 0.10.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (assert error) via unknown attack vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/30/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-0505 represents a critical denial of service flaw within the Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.10.3. This issue specifically affects the AIM dissector component, which is responsible for analyzing and interpreting AOL Instant Messenger protocol traffic. The vulnerability manifests as an assertion error that can be triggered by remote attackers through unspecified attack vectors, potentially causing the application to crash or become unresponsive. Such a flaw poses significant risks to network monitoring and security analysis operations where Ethereal is deployed as a critical tool for network traffic inspection and protocol analysis.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the AIM protocol dissector module of Ethereal. When processing malformed or specially crafted AIM protocol packets, the dissector fails to properly handle certain data structures or protocol elements, leading to an assertion failure that terminates the application. This represents a classic buffer over-read or improper state handling scenario where the dissector does not adequately validate incoming data before attempting to parse it. The vulnerability falls under the category of software robustness issues and can be categorized as a CWE-682: Incorrect Calculation, though more specifically relates to CWE-691: Insufficient Control Flow Management. The assertion error occurs during the protocol analysis phase when Ethereal attempts to dissect AIM traffic, indicating that the dissector lacks proper error handling mechanisms for malformed input.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents substantial risks to network security operations and incident response activities. Network administrators and security analysts who rely on Ethereal for monitoring network traffic may find their analysis tools become unavailable when encountering malicious AIM traffic. The remote exploitability means that attackers can potentially disrupt network monitoring capabilities without requiring local access or authentication. This denial of service condition directly impacts the availability of network analysis services and can interfere with security operations that depend on continuous traffic monitoring. The vulnerability can be particularly damaging in environments where Ethereal is used for real-time network analysis, forensic investigations, or security event correlation, as it can cause complete disruption of network monitoring capabilities. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004: Endpoint Denial of Service, as it targets network analysis tools to cause service disruption.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2004-0505 should prioritize immediate patching of the Ethereal application to version 0.10.4 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the AIM dissector vulnerability. Organizations should also implement network segmentation and traffic filtering to prevent malicious AIM traffic from reaching systems running Ethereal. Network administrators should consider deploying intrusion detection systems that can identify and block suspicious AIM protocol patterns that may trigger the vulnerability. Additionally, implementing redundant monitoring solutions and maintaining backup protocol analysis tools ensures continued operational capability even if one tool becomes compromised. The fix typically involves enhanced input validation and proper error handling within the dissector module to gracefully handle malformed protocol data without causing application termination. Security teams should also conduct regular vulnerability assessments of network monitoring tools to identify similar issues in other protocol dissectors and ensure comprehensive protection against similar denial of service attacks.