CVE-2005-1467 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in the NDPS dissector in Ethereal before 0.10.11 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion) via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/29/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1467 represents a critical memory exhaustion issue within the Network Device Profile System (NDPS) dissector component of Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.10.10 and earlier. This flaw resides in the packet parsing mechanism that processes NDPS traffic, which is used for managing network device profiles and configurations in enterprise environments. The vulnerability manifests when Ethereal processes specially crafted NDPS packets, leading to uncontrolled memory consumption that ultimately results in application crash or complete system denial of service.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the NDPS dissector module. When Ethereal encounters malformed or specially constructed NDPS protocol packets, the dissector fails to properly handle memory allocation for processing these packets, causing progressive memory exhaustion. This behavior aligns with CWE-129, which describes improper validation of length parameters, and CWE-131, which addresses improper handling of memory allocation errors. The vulnerability operates at the application layer protocol parsing level, where the dissector attempts to parse NDPS traffic without sufficient bounds checking or memory resource management, creating a condition where memory consumption grows indefinitely with each processed packet.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise network monitoring capabilities and enterprise security operations. Organizations relying on Ethereal for network traffic analysis and security monitoring would experience complete loss of network visibility when attackers exploit this vulnerability, as the application crashes and becomes unavailable for legitimate traffic analysis. This denial of service scenario particularly affects network administrators who depend on continuous monitoring for threat detection, performance analysis, and compliance auditing. The vulnerability's remote exploitation capability means attackers can trigger the memory exhaustion condition from external network locations without requiring local access or authentication, making it a significant threat to network infrastructure availability.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-1467 primarily focus on immediate software updates and network segmentation measures. The most effective solution involves upgrading to Ethereal version 0.10.11 or later, which includes patches addressing the memory handling issues in the NDPS dissector. Network administrators should also implement network access controls to restrict unnecessary NDPS traffic, particularly at network perimeters where external attackers could exploit this vulnerability. Additional defensive measures include implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify and block malformed NDPS packets, establishing memory monitoring alerts for network analysis tools, and maintaining redundant monitoring systems to ensure continuous network visibility. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to technique T1499.004 for network denial of service and T1566.001 for spearphishing with social engineering, as attackers may use this vulnerability to disrupt network monitoring capabilities and create opportunities for additional attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation strategies that isolate critical monitoring infrastructure from potential attack vectors and establish incident response procedures specifically addressing protocol analyzer failures and memory exhaustion attacks.