CVE-2008-1561 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) 0.99.5 through 0.99.8 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a malformed packet to the (1) X.509sat or (2) Roofnet dissectors. NOTE: Vector 2 might also lead to a hang.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/25/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-1561 represents a critical denial of service weakness affecting Wireshark versions 0.99.5 through 0.99.8, specifically targeting the X.509sat and Roofnet dissectors. This issue demonstrates how network protocol analysis tools can be susceptible to crafted malicious packets that trigger application instability. The vulnerability exists within the packet parsing mechanisms of Wireshark, which is widely used by network security professionals for network traffic analysis and troubleshooting. When these specific dissectors encounter malformed packets designed to exploit their parsing logic, they fail to handle the unexpected data gracefully, resulting in application crashes that can disrupt network monitoring operations.
The technical flaw manifests in the way Wireshark's X.509sat and Roofnet dissectors process incoming packet data. These dissectors are responsible for analyzing specific network protocols, with X.509sat handling X.509 certificate attributes and Roofnet dealing with Roofnet protocol data structures. The vulnerability arises from insufficient input validation and error handling within these dissectors, allowing attackers to craft specially malformed packets that cause buffer overflows, memory corruption, or other parsing failures. This weakness falls under CWE-121, which describes heap-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-125, which addresses out-of-bounds read errors. The lack of proper bounds checking in the dissectors means that when they encounter unexpected data structures, the application's memory management becomes compromised.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application crashes, as it can severely disrupt network monitoring and forensic analysis activities. Network security teams who rely on Wireshark for real-time traffic analysis and incident response may find their monitoring tools become unavailable during critical security events. The vulnerability affects the availability of network analysis capabilities, which can be particularly problematic in environments where continuous monitoring is essential for threat detection and response. When a network analyst is investigating suspicious traffic or conducting security audits, a Wireshark crash can interrupt the investigation and potentially cause loss of critical forensic data. The potential for system hangs, as noted in the vulnerability description, adds additional complexity to the operational impact since these systems may require manual intervention to recover.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to Wireshark versions that have addressed these vulnerabilities, as the affected versions represent a significant risk to network monitoring operations. The recommended mitigation strategy involves implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure to potentially malicious traffic, while also ensuring that network monitoring tools are regularly updated with the latest security patches. Security professionals should consider implementing alternative network monitoring solutions or redundant monitoring systems to maintain operational continuity during patch deployment. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of proper input validation and defensive programming practices in network analysis tools, which should be addressed through comprehensive code reviews and security testing. Organizations should also consider implementing network traffic filtering rules that can help prevent malformed packets from reaching the vulnerable dissectors, though this approach may limit the effectiveness of network analysis for legitimate traffic inspection.