CVE-2018-9274 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE
In Wireshark 2.4.0 to 2.4.5 and 2.2.0 to 2.2.13, ui/failure_message.c has a memory leak.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/26/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-9274 represents a memory leak issue discovered in Wireshark network protocol analyzer versions 2.4.0 through 2.4.5 and 2.2.0 through 2.2.13. This flaw exists within the user interface component specifically in the ui/failure_message.c file, which handles the display of failure messages to users during network capture and analysis operations. The memory leak occurs when the application processes certain network packets or encounters specific error conditions that trigger the failure message display functionality.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper memory management within the failure message handling code. When Wireshark encounters network analysis failures or packet processing errors, it generates failure messages to inform users about the encountered issues. However, the code in ui/failure_message.c fails to properly release allocated memory resources after these failure messages have been displayed, leading to gradual memory consumption over time. This memory leak becomes particularly problematic during prolonged network monitoring sessions or when analyzing large packet captures where multiple failure conditions may occur.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple resource consumption, as it can significantly degrade system performance and potentially lead to application instability. Network analysts and security professionals who rely on Wireshark for extended monitoring sessions may experience system slowdowns, application crashes, or complete system memory exhaustion. The memory leak can compound over time, especially in environments where Wireshark is continuously processing network traffic, making it particularly dangerous for production monitoring systems where reliability is paramount. Additionally, this vulnerability could be exploited by malicious actors to perform resource exhaustion attacks against systems running affected Wireshark versions.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which specifically addresses improper management of memory allocation and deallocation, and represents a classic example of memory leak issues that can severely impact system stability. From an adversarial perspective, this flaw could be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.001, which involves network denial of service attacks, as the memory leak could potentially be exploited to exhaust system resources and cause service disruption. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper memory management in network analysis tools where applications must maintain stability during extended operations. Organizations using affected Wireshark versions should prioritize immediate remediation through official updates, as the memory leak could accumulate to the point of system instability or complete application failure. The issue underscores the necessity for thorough memory management testing in network protocol analyzers, particularly those handling high-volume traffic environments where resource consumption patterns are critical for operational success.