CVE-2011-2597 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
The Lucent/Ascend file parser in Wireshark 1.2.x before 1.2.18, 1.4.x through 1.4.7, and 1.6.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via malformed packets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/14/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-2597 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's packet analysis capabilities, specifically affecting the Lucent/Ascend file parser component. This issue impacts multiple versions of Wireshark including 1.2.x prior to 1.2.18, 1.4.x versions through 1.4.7, and version 1.6.0, creating a widespread security concern for network analysts and security professionals who rely on this tool for network traffic examination. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of malformed network packets that contain specially crafted data structures designed to trigger specific parsing behaviors within the software.
The technical flaw manifests as an infinite loop condition within the file parser logic when processing malformed Lucent/Ascend protocol data. When Wireshark encounters such malformed packets during network capture analysis, the parser enters a continuous loop that consumes excessive CPU resources and prevents the application from processing additional packets or completing normal operations. This particular implementation issue falls under the category of CWE-835, which specifically addresses the problem of infinite loops in software implementations, where a loop lacks proper termination conditions or fails to properly validate input data. The vulnerability demonstrates poor input validation practices and inadequate error handling mechanisms that allow malformed data to propagate through the parsing pipeline without proper bounds checking or termination safeguards.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to network security operations and forensic analysis activities. Network administrators and security analysts who depend on Wireshark for troubleshooting network issues, investigating security incidents, or performing routine network monitoring could experience complete service disruption when encountering maliciously crafted packets in their network traffic. The denial of service condition affects not only the specific analysis session but can potentially impact the entire network monitoring infrastructure if multiple analysts are working with the same capture files or if automated analysis systems are affected. The vulnerability also represents a potential attack vector for adversaries seeking to disrupt network operations or hide malicious activities by exploiting the parsing error to cause system unavailability.
The attack surface for this vulnerability is particularly concerning as it can be triggered through remote network traffic analysis without requiring any special privileges or authentication. An attacker merely needs to craft malformed packets that conform to the Lucent/Ascend protocol format and then either inject them into a network where Wireshark is actively monitoring or provide them as capture files to victims. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where network traffic is continuously analyzed or where automated tools process network captures from multiple sources. The issue aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.001, which covers network denial of service attacks, and demonstrates how protocol parsing errors can be exploited to create system availability issues that impact legitimate network operations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2011-2597 primarily focus on immediate version upgrades to patched releases of Wireshark, specifically versions 1.2.18, 1.4.8, and 1.6.1, which contain the necessary fixes for the infinite loop condition. Network administrators should also implement network segmentation and traffic filtering to prevent potentially malicious packets from reaching systems running vulnerable versions of Wireshark. Additional protective measures include implementing automated monitoring for unusual CPU usage patterns that might indicate the infinite loop condition, establishing network traffic baseline measurements for normal operation, and ensuring that capture files are validated and sanitized before being processed by Wireshark. The vulnerability highlights the importance of robust input validation and error handling in network analysis tools, emphasizing that protocol parsers must be designed with sufficient safeguards against malformed data that could lead to system instability or resource exhaustion.