CVE-2013-5722 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the LDAP dissector in Wireshark 1.8.x before 1.8.10 and 1.10.x before 1.10.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted packet.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/24/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-5722 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol dissector. This issue affects Wireshark versions 1.8.x prior to 1.8.10 and 1.10.x prior to 1.10.2, exposing networks where Wireshark is used for network traffic analysis to potential disruption. The vulnerability manifests when the LDAP dissector encounters malformed or crafted packets that trigger an application crash, effectively rendering the network analysis tool unusable for monitoring and troubleshooting activities.
The technical nature of this flaw lies in the insufficient input validation and error handling mechanisms within Wireshark's LDAP protocol parsing component. When processing specially crafted LDAP packets, the dissector fails to properly handle malformed data structures or unexpected packet formats, leading to memory corruption or unexpected program termination. This behavior aligns with common software security principles where inadequate boundary checking and input sanitization create exploitable conditions. The vulnerability can be classified under CWE-20 as "Improper Input Validation" and potentially CWE-121 as "Stack-based Buffer Overflow" given the nature of memory corruption in network protocol handlers.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to network security teams and administrators who rely on Wireshark for monitoring network traffic and identifying security incidents. An attacker positioned to inject or redirect network traffic could exploit this weakness to cause persistent service disruptions, forcing network analysts to restart monitoring tools and potentially missing critical security events during the downtime. The impact extends beyond simple service interruption as it compromises the integrity of network monitoring operations, which are fundamental to incident response and security operations centers. This vulnerability directly affects the availability aspect of the CIA triad and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1498 as "Network Denial of Service" when leveraged in targeted attacks against monitoring infrastructure.
The exploitation of CVE-2013-5722 requires minimal technical expertise as attackers only need to craft specific LDAP packets to trigger the crash condition. This makes it particularly dangerous in environments where network traffic analysis tools are deployed without proper network segmentation or monitoring of suspicious traffic patterns. Organizations using Wireshark for production network monitoring, security audits, or forensic analysis face substantial risk from this vulnerability. The vulnerability's impact is amplified in environments where Wireshark is integrated into automated security monitoring workflows or used by multiple analysts simultaneously, as a single malicious packet can affect the entire monitoring infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability include immediate patching of affected Wireshark versions to 1.8.10 or 1.10.2, which contain the necessary fixes for the LDAP dissector's input validation mechanisms. Network administrators should also implement network segmentation to limit exposure of monitoring infrastructure to untrusted traffic sources and consider deploying additional monitoring tools with different protocol handling capabilities as redundancy measures. Organizations should also establish monitoring procedures to detect and respond to service disruptions in their network analysis tools, as well as implement proper network access controls to prevent unauthorized packet injection into monitoring networks. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of keeping network security tools updated and the need for robust input validation in protocol parsing components.