CVE-2023-0416 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE • 01/26/2023
GNW dissector crash in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.2 and 3.6.0 to 3.6.10 and allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/07/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-0416 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Wireshark's GNW dissector component affecting multiple versions including 4.0.0 through 4.0.2 and 3.6.0 through 3.6.10. This issue stems from improper handling of malformed packet data during the network protocol analysis process, specifically when processing GNW protocol packets. The GNW dissector is responsible for decoding and interpreting network traffic that follows the Generic Network Wire protocol format, which is commonly used in network monitoring and analysis scenarios. When Wireshark encounters malformed or crafted GNW protocol data, the dissector fails to properly validate input parameters, leading to a crash condition that terminates the application.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through buffer overflows and memory corruption issues within the dissector's parsing logic. When processing network captures or real-time packet injection, the GNW dissector does not adequately validate the length and structure of incoming data fields, allowing attackers to craft malicious packets that trigger unexpected behavior in the application's memory management system. This flaw operates at the protocol decoding layer, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited through multiple attack vectors including network packet injection, crafted capture files, or even legitimate network traffic that happens to contain malformed GNW protocol data. The vulnerability essentially allows an unauthenticated attacker to remotely cause a denial of service condition that completely crashes the Wireshark application, rendering network analysis capabilities unavailable until manual restart occurs.
The operational impact of CVE-2023-0416 extends beyond simple application crashes to encompass broader network monitoring and security operations disruptions. Organizations relying on Wireshark for network troubleshooting, security analysis, and incident response may experience complete service outages when this vulnerability is exploited. The vulnerability affects both network administrators and security professionals who depend on Wireshark for critical network visibility, potentially leaving network infrastructures vulnerable during security investigations or incident response activities. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability maps directly to the attack technique of service disruption and system availability compromise, which aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. The flaw also relates to CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-125, which addresses out-of-bounds read errors, both of which are common manifestations of improper input validation in network protocol parsers.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-0416 require immediate patching of affected Wireshark installations to versions that contain the necessary code fixes and input validation improvements. Organizations should prioritize updating their Wireshark deployments to the latest stable releases that address this vulnerability, particularly since the issue affects widely used versions across both major release lines. Network security teams should implement monitoring for suspicious packet patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, though the nature of the vulnerability makes detection challenging since it requires actual packet processing to trigger the crash. Additional protective measures include implementing network segmentation to limit exposure, using network access control lists to filter potentially malicious traffic, and ensuring that network analysis tools are not running in production environments where they might be targeted by attackers. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of proper input validation and memory safety practices in network protocol analysis software, reinforcing the need for comprehensive security testing of dissector components within network monitoring tools.