CVE-2005-3249 in Ethereal
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the WSP dissector in Ethereal 0.10.1 to 0.10.12 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or corrupt memory via unknown vectors that cause Ethereal to free an invalid pointer.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/11/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-3249 represents a critical memory corruption issue within the WSP dissector component of Ethereal network protocol analyzer version 0.10.1 through 0.10.12. This flaw resides in the packet parsing functionality that processes Wireless Session Protocol data, which is commonly used in wireless communication networks. The vulnerability manifests when Ethereal encounters specially crafted WSP packets that trigger improper memory management operations during protocol analysis. The issue stems from the dissector's failure to properly validate input data before attempting memory operations, creating a scenario where the application attempts to free memory locations that have already been deallocated or are otherwise invalid. This type of memory corruption vulnerability directly maps to CWE-415, which describes improper behavior in memory management where an application attempts to free memory that has already been freed, and CWE-416, which covers the freeing of memory after it has been freed. The vulnerability exists within the broader context of network protocol analysis tools where input validation and memory safety are paramount to prevent exploitation by malicious actors.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial of service conditions to potentially enable more sophisticated attacks through memory corruption. When remote attackers send malformed WSP packets to an Ethereal instance, the application may experience crashes or unpredictable behavior due to the invalid pointer dereference. The memory corruption could potentially be leveraged to execute arbitrary code if the attacker can control the memory layout and exploit the corrupted state. This vulnerability affects the core functionality of Ethereal as a network analysis tool, rendering it unreliable for network monitoring and security auditing purposes. The issue represents a fundamental flaw in the application's defensive programming practices, particularly concerning buffer management and pointer validation. The vulnerability's exploitation potential increases when considering that Ethereal was widely used for network troubleshooting and security analysis, making systems running vulnerable versions attractive targets for attackers seeking to disrupt network monitoring capabilities. The impact is particularly severe in enterprise environments where network analysis tools are critical for security operations and incident response activities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-3249 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Ethereal installations to version 0.10.13 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the WSP dissector memory management issues. System administrators should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of Ethereal instances to untrusted networks or users. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of input validation and defensive programming practices in network protocol analysis tools, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for process injection and T1499.004 for network denial of service. Organizations should consider implementing network monitoring solutions that can detect and block malformed WSP traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should include checks for outdated network analysis tools to prevent similar issues from persisting in the environment. The remediation process should also involve comprehensive testing of patched systems to ensure that the memory management fixes do not introduce compatibility issues with legitimate network traffic analysis. Security teams should monitor for any reported exploitation attempts or related vulnerabilities in similar network protocol analyzers, as this class of vulnerability often indicates broader issues in the application's memory handling mechanisms that may affect other components beyond the specific WSP dissector.