CVE-2005-1281 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Ethereal 0.10.10 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a crafted RSVP packet of length 4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/30/2024
Ethereal, now known as Wireshark, version 0.10.10 and earlier contained a critical vulnerability that could be exploited to cause a denial of service condition through an infinite loop in the packet processing logic. This vulnerability specifically targeted the Resource Reservation Protocol RSVP packet handling mechanism, where an attacker could craft a malicious packet with a precise length of four bytes to trigger the problematic code path. The flaw originated from inadequate input validation and boundary checking within the protocol dissector implementation, which failed to properly handle edge cases in packet length validation. When the software encountered such a crafted RSVP packet, it would enter an infinite loop during the parsing process, consuming excessive CPU resources and rendering the application unresponsive. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of malformed input handling issues and represents a classic example of a denial of service attack that exploits protocol parsing flaws. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, which addresses improper validation of array indices, and CWE-674, which covers uncontrolled recursion or infinite loops in software. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability posed significant risks to network monitoring and security analysis activities, as Ethereal/Wireshark was commonly used for network traffic analysis and intrusion detection. The infinite loop condition would prevent legitimate network analysis from continuing, effectively disabling the tool's ability to process network packets and potentially exposing network administrators to extended periods of reduced network visibility. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability by simply sending a single malicious RSVP packet to any system running the vulnerable version of Ethereal, making it particularly dangerous for network security professionals who rely on the tool for their daily operations. The impact extended beyond simple service disruption as it could be used to attack network monitoring infrastructure, potentially allowing attackers to evade detection by disrupting network analysis capabilities. The vulnerability demonstrated how protocol parsing errors could be weaponized to create persistent denial of service conditions, making it a prime example of how seemingly minor input validation flaws could have significant operational consequences. Organizations using vulnerable versions of Ethereal were advised to upgrade to patched releases immediately, as the vulnerability could be exploited remotely without requiring any authentication or special privileges. The incident highlighted the importance of robust input validation in network protocol analyzers and underscored the need for comprehensive testing of edge cases in protocol parsing implementations. From an att&ck framework perspective, this vulnerability could be categorized under defensive evasion techniques where an attacker attempts to disrupt security monitoring tools to avoid detection. The flaw also demonstrated the critical nature of maintaining up-to-date security software, as the vulnerability existed in widely deployed versions and could be easily exploited by adversaries with minimal technical expertise. Network security teams needed to implement immediate mitigations by upgrading to patched versions of the software, while also considering network segmentation to limit the impact of such attacks. The vulnerability served as a reminder that even widely trusted security tools could contain critical flaws that could be exploited to undermine network security operations and analysis capabilities.