CVE-2005-1456 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple unknown vulnerabilities in the (1) DHCP and (2) Telnet dissectors in Ethereal before 0.10.11 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (abort).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/01/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1456 represents a critical security flaw affecting the Ethereal network protocol analyzer software version 0.10.10 and earlier. This issue manifests through multiple unknown vulnerabilities located within the DHCP and Telnet dissectors of the application, creating a significant risk for network monitoring and analysis operations. The affected software components are responsible for parsing and interpreting network traffic data, specifically focusing on dhcp and telnet protocol communications. These dissectors form essential parts of the network analysis framework, enabling security professionals and network administrators to monitor and analyze network traffic patterns for potential threats or anomalies. The presence of these vulnerabilities in the protocol analysis modules creates a scenario where malicious actors can exploit the software's parsing mechanisms to trigger unexpected behavior.
The technical nature of this vulnerability lies in the improper handling of malformed or specially crafted network packets within the DHCP and Telnet dissectors. When Ethereal processes network traffic containing maliciously formatted dhcp or telnet data, the dissectors fail to properly validate input parameters or handle edge cases in packet structure. This leads to the application crashing or aborting its execution process, resulting in a complete denial of service condition. The vulnerability specifically affects the protocol analysis capabilities of Ethereal, which means that legitimate network traffic analysis operations are disrupted. The lack of proper input validation and error handling mechanisms in these dissectors creates exploitable conditions where attackers can craft specific network packets that cause the application to terminate unexpectedly. This represents a classic buffer overflow or improper input validation scenario that can be exploited through network-based attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can severely compromise network monitoring capabilities for organizations relying on Ethereal for security operations. Network administrators who depend on this tool for real-time traffic analysis may experience complete loss of monitoring functionality during attacks, potentially leaving network infrastructures vulnerable to other threats. The denial of service condition affects the availability of critical network analysis services, which can have cascading effects on incident response capabilities and security monitoring operations. Organizations using Ethereal for network forensics or security auditing may find their investigative capabilities compromised, as the tool becomes unavailable during critical analysis periods. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where continuous network monitoring is essential, as any disruption in protocol analysis capabilities can create blind spots in network security posture.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability involves immediate upgrading to Ethereal version 0.10.11 or later, which contains patches addressing the specific issues in the DHCP and Telnet dissectors. System administrators should prioritize this update across all network monitoring systems to prevent exploitation. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls can reduce the attack surface by limiting potential exploit vectors. Organizations should also consider deploying intrusion detection systems that can identify and block malicious network traffic patterns associated with this vulnerability. The fix implemented in version 0.10.11 likely includes enhanced input validation mechanisms and improved error handling procedures within the dissectors to prevent malformed packets from causing application termination. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which addresses stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and may also relate to CWE-248, concerning unchecked exceptions. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability could be categorized under T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks and T1071.004 for application layer protocols, specifically targeting the network traffic analysis capabilities of security tools.