CVE-2012-4291 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
The CIP dissector in Wireshark 1.4.x before 1.4.15, 1.6.x before 1.6.10, and 1.8.x before 1.8.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a malformed packet.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/27/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-4291 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's CIP dissector component, affecting multiple versions of the popular network protocol analyzer. This issue specifically targets the Common Industrial Protocol dissector which is responsible for parsing and interpreting industrial communication data. The vulnerability manifests when Wireshark encounters malformed CIP packets during network traffic analysis, causing the application to consume excessive memory resources and potentially leading to complete system unresponsiveness or crash. The affected versions span across Wireshark's 1.4.x, 1.6.x, and 1.8.x release lines, indicating a widespread impact across the software's major version branches.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the CIP dissector module. When processing malformed CIP packets, the dissector fails to properly handle malformed data structures or unexpected packet formats, leading to recursive memory allocation patterns that spiral out of control. This flaw operates at the protocol decoding layer where Wireshark attempts to parse industrial communication protocols for network analysis purposes, making it particularly dangerous in environments where industrial network traffic is monitored. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-400, which specifically addresses "Uncontrolled Resource Consumption" or "Resource Exhaustion" conditions in software applications. The memory consumption behavior creates a classic denial of service scenario where legitimate network analysis operations become impossible due to resource exhaustion.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability presents significant risk to organizations relying on Wireshark for network monitoring and industrial protocol analysis. Attackers can exploit this flaw by crafting and transmitting specially malformed CIP packets to a target system running vulnerable Wireshark versions, causing the application to consume all available memory resources and eventually crash. This attack vector is particularly concerning in industrial environments where network monitoring tools are critical for operational continuity, as it could potentially disrupt network visibility and monitoring capabilities. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromising the security monitoring infrastructure itself, leaving industrial networks vulnerable to undetected malicious activities. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers "Network Denial of Service" attacks targeting network infrastructure components.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability involves immediate upgrade to patched versions of Wireshark, specifically versions 1.4.15, 1.6.10, and 1.8.2, which contain the necessary fixes for the CIP dissector memory handling issues. Network administrators should implement network segmentation and monitoring to detect unusual memory consumption patterns in network analysis tools. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing network access controls to limit exposure to potentially malicious traffic. The fix implemented in the patched versions addresses the root cause by introducing proper input validation and memory allocation limits within the CIP dissector module, preventing the recursive memory consumption patterns that previously led to system instability. Security teams should also consider implementing network traffic filtering rules that can identify and drop malformed CIP packets at network boundaries to reduce the attack surface for this particular vulnerability.