CVE-2004-1761 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in Ethereal 0.8.13 to 0.10.2 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) via a malformed color filter file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/16/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-1761 represents a critical denial of service flaw affecting the Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.8.13 through 0.10.2. This issue stems from inadequate input validation within the application's handling of color filter files, which are used to define visual highlighting rules for network traffic analysis. The vulnerability manifests when the application processes malformed color filter files that contain improperly structured data or invalid syntax, leading to a segmentation fault that crashes the entire application. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of improper input validation as defined by CWE-20, where the software fails to properly validate or sanitize user-supplied data before processing it. The flaw demonstrates a classic buffer overflow or memory corruption pattern that occurs during the parsing of structured configuration files, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network traffic analysis tools are critical for monitoring and security operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can be exploited by malicious actors to systematically crash network monitoring systems. When an attacker crafts a specially designed color filter file and persuades a victim to load it into Ethereal, the application will terminate unexpectedly due to the segmentation fault, effectively rendering the network analysis tool unusable. This denial of service condition can be particularly devastating in enterprise environments where network monitoring is crucial for security operations and incident response. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical expertise, as it only necessitates the creation of a malformed file rather than complex attack vectors. This characteristic aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks through application-level faults, making it a particularly attractive target for adversaries seeking to disrupt network monitoring capabilities.
From a security perspective, this vulnerability highlights the importance of robust input validation and error handling in network analysis tools that process user-defined configuration files. The flaw demonstrates how seemingly benign features like color filtering can become attack vectors when proper sanitization measures are not implemented. The affected versions of Ethereal were widely used in both enterprise and academic environments for network traffic analysis, making this vulnerability particularly impactful across multiple sectors. The vulnerability's classification as a segmentation fault indicates that the application fails to properly handle memory access violations when processing malformed input, which is a common pattern in software that does not implement adequate bounds checking or memory management. Organizations using these versions of Ethereal were advised to immediately upgrade to patched versions or implement compensating controls to prevent exploitation of this vulnerability. The issue also underscores the broader challenge of maintaining security in network analysis tools where users often need to define custom rules and filters, requiring careful consideration of how such user inputs are processed and validated.