CVE-2014-6422 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
The SDP dissector in Wireshark 1.10.x before 1.10.10 creates duplicate hashtables for a media channel, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted packet to the RTP dissector.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/21/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6422 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's Session Description Protocol dissector implementation. This issue affects Wireshark versions 1.10.x prior to 1.10.10 and specifically targets the handling of SDP media channels during packet analysis. The flaw manifests when the application processes crafted packets that trigger duplicate hashtable creation within the RTP dissector component, ultimately leading to application instability and potential system crash conditions.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in improper memory management and data structure handling within Wireshark's protocol dissection engine. When processing malformed SDP packets containing specially crafted media channel information, the dissector fails to properly manage hashtable references, resulting in memory corruption and subsequent application termination. This behavior aligns with CWE-129, which addresses improper handling of memory allocation and deallocation scenarios. The vulnerability operates at the application layer of the network stack, specifically targeting the protocol analysis functionality that Wireshark employs to decode and display network traffic.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to network security analysts and forensic investigators who rely on Wireshark for traffic analysis. Attackers can exploit this flaw by crafting malicious SDP packets that, when processed by an affected Wireshark instance, will cause the application to crash and terminate unexpectedly. This denial of service condition effectively prevents legitimate network analysis activities and could be used in targeted attacks against security operations. The vulnerability demonstrates characteristics consistent with ATT&CK technique T1498, which involves breaking or entering systems through service availability attacks, and T1566, which covers social engineering tactics that could be employed to deliver malicious packets to unsuspecting analysts.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application crash scenarios, as it represents a potential vector for more sophisticated attacks within network security environments. Security professionals who regularly analyze network traffic using Wireshark become potential targets for exploitation, as the application's utility makes it a prime candidate for such attacks. The flaw's presence in widely used network analysis tools means that successful exploitation could disrupt critical security monitoring operations and potentially allow attackers to evade detection by disrupting the very tools used to monitor network activity. Organizations relying on Wireshark for incident response, network troubleshooting, and security auditing must consider this vulnerability as a critical threat requiring immediate remediation. The recommended mitigation strategy involves upgrading to Wireshark version 1.10.10 or later, which includes patches addressing the hashtable management issues that lead to this denial of service condition.