CVE-2018-9261 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
In Wireshark 2.4.0 to 2.4.5 and 2.2.0 to 2.2.13, the NBAP dissector could crash with a large loop that ends with a heap-based buffer overflow. This was addressed in epan/dissectors/packet-nbap.c by prohibiting the self-linking of DCH-IDs.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/26/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-9261 represents a critical heap-based buffer overflow in Wireshark's Network Basic Access Profile (NBAP) dissector affecting versions 2.4.0 through 2.4.5 and 2.2.0 through 2.2.13. This flaw exists within the packet dissection functionality that processes NBAP protocol traffic, which is commonly used in UMTS mobile networks for controlling radio resources between NodeB and RNC components. The vulnerability manifests when processing specially crafted NBAP packets that contain malformed DCH-ID (Dedicated Channel Identifier) sequences, creating an infinite loop condition that ultimately results in heap memory corruption. The root cause lies in the dissector's insufficient validation of self-referential DCH-ID structures, allowing attackers to manipulate the dissection process through malicious packet construction.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through a specific pattern of packet construction that triggers a self-linking condition within the DCH-ID processing loop. When the dissector encounters a DCH-ID that references itself in its own structure, the processing logic enters an infinite loop where it continuously processes the same data structure without proper termination conditions. This unbounded iteration eventually exhausts available heap memory resources and leads to a buffer overflow condition at the heap memory level. The heap-based nature of this overflow means that the corruption occurs in dynamically allocated memory segments rather than stack-based buffers, making it particularly challenging to detect and exploit reliably. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-121 Heap-based Buffer Overflow and falls under the ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell, though the primary vector is network-based protocol parsing rather than script execution.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial-of-service scenarios, as it could potentially allow remote code execution in certain environments where Wireshark is run with elevated privileges. Network administrators and security analysts who use Wireshark for packet analysis and network troubleshooting face significant risk when processing traffic from untrusted sources, as simply opening a malicious capture file containing crafted NBAP packets could trigger the vulnerability. The crash behavior manifests as application instability, process termination, or in worst-case scenarios, heap corruption that could be leveraged for more sophisticated exploitation techniques. This vulnerability particularly affects enterprise environments where Wireshark is used for network monitoring, incident response, and security analysis, as these systems often process large volumes of network traffic from diverse sources including potentially malicious actors.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-9261 focus primarily on immediate version updates to Wireshark 2.4.6 or 2.2.14, which contain the specific fix implemented in epan/dissectors/packet-nbap.c. The fix prevents self-linking of DCH-IDs by implementing proper validation checks that detect and reject circular references within the DCH-ID structure processing logic. Organizations should also implement network segmentation and traffic filtering to reduce exposure to potentially malicious NBAP traffic, particularly in environments where Wireshark is used for live packet capture. Additionally, security teams should ensure that Wireshark is run with minimal privileges and that capture files are validated before opening, especially when processing traffic from untrusted sources. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation in protocol dissectors and underscores the need for thorough testing of edge cases in network analysis tools. Network security monitoring should include detection of unusual packet patterns that might indicate attempts to exploit similar vulnerabilities in other dissector components.