CVE-2005-2362 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability several dissectors in Ethereal 0.9.0 through 0.10.11 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) by reassembling certain packets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/11/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-2362 represents a critical denial of service flaw affecting the Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.9.0 through 0.10.11. This issue manifests within the packet reassembly functionality of the application, specifically impacting multiple dissectors that process network traffic. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to trigger application crashes through the careful crafting of network packets that, when processed by Ethereal's reassembly mechanisms, cause the application to terminate unexpectedly. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of memory corruption issues that can be exploited to disrupt network monitoring operations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the packet reassembly components of Ethereal. When the application encounters specially crafted packets during the reassembly process, it fails to properly handle edge cases or malformed data structures, leading to buffer overflows, invalid memory access, or other memory corruption conditions. The flaw is particularly concerning because it affects multiple dissectors, meaning that attackers can potentially exploit this vulnerability across various network protocols without requiring specific protocol knowledge. This broad impact makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where network monitoring tools process diverse traffic types.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability creates significant risk for network administrators and security operations teams who rely on Ethereal for network analysis and troubleshooting. The remote nature of the attack means that an attacker located outside the network perimeter can potentially disrupt network monitoring capabilities without requiring physical access or authentication credentials. This makes the vulnerability particularly attractive to malicious actors seeking to disable network monitoring tools during security incidents or to create cover for other attacks. The application crash resulting from this vulnerability effectively removes network visibility capabilities, potentially leaving network infrastructure unprotected against ongoing threats. Organizations using affected versions of Ethereal face potential operational disruption and may be unable to perform critical network analysis tasks during an attack.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability involves immediate upgrade to a patched version of Ethereal, specifically versions 0.10.12 or later, which contain fixes for the packet reassembly and dissector handling code. System administrators should also implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of monitoring tools to untrusted networks. Additionally, monitoring for unusual network traffic patterns or application crashes may help detect exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-125, which covers out-of-bounds read conditions, and may also relate to CWE-787, representing out-of-bounds write conditions, depending on the specific implementation details. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability would be categorized under the denial of service tactic in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, specifically targeting network monitoring and analysis capabilities to reduce the effectiveness of defensive operations. Organizations should also consider implementing redundant monitoring solutions to maintain visibility even if one monitoring tool is compromised by such vulnerabilities.