CVE-2015-3138 in tcpdump
Summary
by MITRE
print-wb.c in tcpdump before 4.7.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and process crash).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/30/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-3138 resides within the print-wb.c component of tcpdump, a widely used network packet analyzer tool that operates across various operating systems including linux unix and windows platforms. This flaw represents a classic buffer overflow condition that manifests when tcpdump processes specially crafted network packets containing malformed Windows NetBIOS names. The vulnerability affects tcpdump versions prior to 4.7.4 and presents a significant security risk as it can be exploited remotely by attackers to disrupt network monitoring operations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the print-wb.c file which handles the printing of Windows NetBIOS names in captured network traffic. When tcpdump encounters a malformed NetBIOS name structure in network packets, the parsing logic fails to properly bounds check the data before processing it. This leads to a situation where the program attempts to read beyond allocated memory boundaries, causing a segmentation fault that results in an immediate process crash. The flaw specifically occurs during the handling of the NetBIOS name service response packets which are commonly found in windows networking environments and are used for name resolution and service discovery.
From an operational perspective this vulnerability creates substantial risk for network administrators who rely on tcpdump for network monitoring and security analysis. The remote exploitation capability means that an attacker positioned on the network can simply send malformed packets to a system running an affected version of tcpdump, causing the monitoring process to crash and potentially disrupting network visibility. This denial of service condition can be particularly problematic in security operations centers where continuous network monitoring is critical for threat detection and incident response activities. The vulnerability is especially dangerous in environments where tcpdump is used for automated network analysis or integrated into security monitoring systems that depend on uninterrupted operation.
The impact of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-121 which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 which covers network denial of service attacks. Organizations using affected versions of tcpdump should prioritize immediate patching to 4.7.4 or later versions to eliminate this security gap. Additional mitigations include implementing network segmentation to limit exposure, using intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious packet patterns, and considering alternative network monitoring tools that have been verified as free from similar vulnerabilities. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date network security tools and highlights the critical need for proper input validation in network protocol parsers to prevent exploitation of memory corruption flaws.