CVE-2017-11408 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
In Wireshark 2.2.0 to 2.2.7 and 2.0.0 to 2.0.13, the AMQP dissector could crash. This was addressed in epan/dissectors/packet-amqp.c by checking for successful list dissection.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/13/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-11408 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's AMQP protocol dissector. This issue affected versions ranging from 2.2.0 through 2.2.7 and 2.0.0 through 2.0.13, creating a significant risk for network analysts and security professionals who rely on Wireshark for protocol analysis. The AMQP dissector is responsible for parsing and interpreting Advanced Message Queuing Protocol traffic, which is commonly used in enterprise messaging systems and distributed application architectures. When processing malformed or specially crafted AMQP packets, the dissector would experience a segmentation fault leading to application crash and complete service disruption.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the packet dissection logic. Specifically, the flaw occurred in the epan/dissectors/packet-amqp.c file where the dissector failed to properly verify the success of list dissection operations before proceeding with subsequent processing. This represents a classic buffer over-read or improper state handling issue that falls under CWE-129, which addresses insufficient validation of the length of input data. The dissector would attempt to process data structures without confirming that the expected list elements were properly parsed, leading to memory access violations when the application tried to read beyond allocated buffers or access invalid memory locations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it could be exploited by malicious actors to create targeted denial of service attacks against network monitoring systems. Security teams and network administrators who depend on Wireshark for real-time traffic analysis and incident response could find their monitoring capabilities completely compromised when encountering malicious AMQP traffic. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where AMQP traffic is common, including financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise messaging infrastructures. The attack vector is straightforward - an attacker needs only to send specially crafted AMQP packets to a system running the vulnerable Wireshark version, resulting in immediate application termination and loss of network visibility.
The fix implemented by the Wireshark development team involved adding explicit validation checks to ensure that list dissection operations completed successfully before proceeding with further processing. This remediation aligns with defensive programming principles and follows the principle of least privilege in protocol parsing. The solution addresses the underlying issue by implementing proper error handling and validation mechanisms that prevent the dissector from continuing execution when data structures are malformed or incomplete. Organizations should prioritize updating to Wireshark versions that include this fix, as the vulnerability does not require authentication or special privileges to exploit. The remediation also demonstrates the importance of robust input validation in network protocol analysis tools, as highlighted in ATT&CK technique T1070.004 for the use of network sniffers and packet analysis tools in reconnaissance and exploitation activities.
This vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of proper input validation in network security tools, particularly those handling diverse and complex protocol formats. The AMQP protocol itself is designed for robust messaging in distributed systems, making the fact that a parsing error could lead to complete application failure particularly concerning for security professionals who rely on these tools for monitoring and analysis. The fix implemented represents a standard defensive programming approach that should be applied across all protocol dissectors to prevent similar issues from occurring in other network analysis tools. Organizations using Wireshark in production environments should verify their installations are updated to patched versions and consider implementing additional monitoring for potential exploitation attempts targeting this class of vulnerability.