CVE-2005-2361 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in the (1) AgentX dissector, (2) PER dissector, (3) DOCSIS dissector, (4) SCTP graphs, (5) HTTP dissector, (6) DCERPC, (7) DHCP, (8) RADIUS dissector, (9) Telnet dissector, (10) IS-IS LSP dissector, or (11) NCP dissector in Ethereal 0.8.19 through 0.10.11 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash or abort) via unknown attack vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/11/2019
This vulnerability affects Ethereal network protocol analyzer versions 0.8.19 through 0.10.11 and involves multiple dissector components that process various network protocols. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and error handling within these protocol dissectors, which are responsible for parsing and analyzing network traffic. These dissectors handle protocols including AgentX for SNMP extension, PER for ASN.1 encoding, DOCSIS for cable modem communications, SCTP graphs for stream control transmission protocol visualization, HTTP for web traffic analysis, DCERPC for distributed computing, DHCP for dynamic host configuration, RADIUS for remote authentication, Telnet for terminal emulation, IS-IS LSP for intermediate system to intermediate system routing, and NCP for network control protocol. The flaw manifests when these dissectors encounter malformed or specially crafted protocol data units that trigger unexpected behavior in the application's parsing logic. According to CWE classification, this vulnerability corresponds to CWE-129, which addresses insufficient input validation, and CWE-248, which covers exposure of an exception to an application. The attack vectors remain unspecified but likely involve sending maliciously formatted packets or data streams that exploit buffer overflows, integer overflows, or other parsing inconsistencies within the dissector code. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks targeting applications through malformed input. The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it allows remote attackers to cause application crashes or aborts, effectively creating a denial of service condition that prevents legitimate network analysis operations. When the Ethereal application crashes, network administrators lose visibility into network traffic, potentially disrupting critical monitoring and troubleshooting activities. The vulnerability affects the core functionality of the network analyzer, making it impossible to process traffic from the affected protocols until the application is restarted. The exploitability of this vulnerability depends on the ability of attackers to craft specific packet formats that will trigger the parsing errors in the various dissectors. Since the specific attack vectors are unknown, the vulnerability represents a broad class of issues that could potentially be exploited through various protocol-specific inputs. This type of vulnerability highlights the challenges in developing robust network protocol analyzers where dissectors must handle diverse and potentially malicious inputs while maintaining application stability. The vulnerability impacts the integrity and availability of network monitoring infrastructure, as the application becomes unreliable when processing traffic from these protocols. Organizations using affected versions of Ethereal should consider implementing network segmentation or access controls to limit exposure, as well as monitoring for unusual application behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the importance of input validation and robust error handling in network protocol analysis tools, as these applications must process potentially malicious network traffic from untrusted sources. Given the nature of network monitoring tools, the impact extends beyond simple application availability to potentially compromising network security operations and incident response capabilities. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical need for thorough testing of protocol dissectors against malformed inputs and proper implementation of defensive programming practices to prevent application crashes and maintain system reliability. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of keeping network analysis tools updated, as newer versions of Ethereal would have addressed these parsing inconsistencies through improved validation and error handling mechanisms.