CVE-2005-1466 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in the DICOM dissector in Ethereal before 0.10.11 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (large memory allocation) via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/29/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1466 represents a critical denial of service weakness within the Data Interchange for Medical Information DICOM dissector component of Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.10.10 and earlier. This issue stems from insufficient input validation and memory management controls within the DICOM protocol parsing functionality, which processes medical imaging data transmitted over networks. The vulnerability specifically manifests when the dissector encounters malformed or specially crafted DICOM packets that trigger unexpected memory allocation behaviors during packet processing.
The technical flaw resides in the protocol dissector's handling of DICOM message structures where it fails to properly validate the size parameters of incoming data segments before allocating memory resources. When remote attackers send carefully constructed DICOM packets containing oversized or malformed length fields, the dissector attempts to allocate excessive memory buffers that can quickly exhaust available system resources. This memory allocation behavior creates a resource exhaustion condition that prevents the application from processing legitimate network traffic, effectively causing a denial of service. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because DICOM is widely used in healthcare environments for transmitting medical images and patient data, making it a potential target for attackers seeking to disrupt critical healthcare communications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it affects the reliability and availability of network monitoring systems in healthcare facilities. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause Ethereal to consume excessive memory resources, potentially leading to system crashes or unresponsive behavior that prevents network administrators from monitoring critical traffic patterns. In healthcare environments where continuous network monitoring is essential for security and operational purposes, such a vulnerability could compromise the ability to detect and respond to security incidents. The remote nature of the attack vector means that adversaries can exploit this weakness from outside the network perimeter, making it particularly dangerous for healthcare organizations that rely on network monitoring tools for threat detection.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-1466 involve immediate patching of Ethereal to version 0.10.11 or later, which contains the necessary memory allocation validation fixes. Network administrators should also implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of vulnerable systems to untrusted networks. Additional protective measures include implementing rate limiting on DICOM traffic and deploying intrusion detection systems that can identify and block suspicious DICOM packet patterns. Organizations should consider using alternative protocol analyzers that have been verified to handle malformed input more robustly. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-122, which describes improper restriction of operations within a memory buffer, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of input validation in network protocol implementations and underscores the need for robust memory management practices in security tools processing untrusted network data.