CVE-2007-6117 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the HTTP dissector for Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) 0.10.14 to 0.99.6 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted chunked messages.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/31/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-6117 affects Wireshark versions ranging from 0.10.14 through 0.99.6, specifically within the HTTP dissector component responsible for parsing and analyzing Hypertext Transfer Protocol traffic. This issue represents a critical security flaw that demonstrates the potential for remote code execution and system compromise through carefully crafted network packets. The vulnerability arises from inadequate input validation and processing within the HTTP dissector module, which is essential for network traffic analysis and forensic investigations.
The technical flaw manifests when the HTTP dissector encounters specially crafted chunked transfer encoding messages that contain malformed data structures or unexpected byte sequences. These malformed chunked messages exploit buffer overflows, memory corruption issues, or improper state handling within the dissector's parsing logic. The vulnerability is classified as a remote attack vector since it can be triggered through network traffic without requiring local system access or user interaction. Attackers can construct malicious HTTP responses with invalid chunked encoding that cause the Wireshark application to crash or potentially execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to network security professionals who rely on Wireshark for network monitoring, incident response, and forensic analysis. When an attacker successfully exploits this vulnerability, they can cause the Wireshark application to crash, resulting in denial of service for network analysis operations. More critically, the potential for arbitrary code execution means that attackers could gain control of the victim's system, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The vulnerability affects both the analysis capabilities of network administrators and the security posture of organizations relying on Wireshark for traffic inspection, as compromised analysis tools could provide attackers with access to sensitive network information.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes heap-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a classic example of improper input validation leading to memory corruption. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving execution through compromised tools and command and control communications, as attackers could use the compromised Wireshark instance to establish persistent access or conduct further reconnaissance. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure, while security teams must prioritize immediate patching of affected systems. The remediation strategy involves upgrading to Wireshark versions that have addressed this vulnerability through proper input validation, memory management improvements, and enhanced error handling within the HTTP dissector module.