CVE-2026-96420 in Wireshark
Summary
by MITRE • 09/29/2026
Toshiba file parser crash in 4.6.0 to 4.6.8 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.18 allows denial of service
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/29/2026
The vulnerability identified involves a critical flaw within the Toshiba file parsing logic present in software versions ranging from 4.4.0 through 4.4.18 and 4.6.0 through 4.6.8. This defect manifests as an application crash, which directly facilitates a denial of service condition for users or systems relying on this specific component to process files. The root cause typically stems from improper validation or boundary checking when the parser encounters malformed or specifically crafted input data that exceeds expected limits or contains invalid structures. When such anomalous data is processed, it triggers an unhandled exception within the application memory space, leading to immediate termination of the program execution rather than graceful error handling.
From a technical perspective, this issue aligns with common weaknesses associated with improper input validation and buffer management. In many cases, these crashes are caused by out-of-bounds reads or writes where the parser fails to verify that the data length matches the allocated memory buffers before processing. This lack of rigorous sanitization allows attackers to craft malicious files containing specific byte sequences or structural anomalies that exploit the parsing routine's assumptions about file integrity. The consequence is a predictable crash, which disrupts service availability and can potentially be leveraged in conjunction with other vulnerabilities for more severe impacts such as remote code execution if memory corruption occurs beyond simple termination.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is primarily centered on reliability and availability. For environments where the Toshiba software component is used to automate file processing or serve documents, an attacker could send a single maliciously crafted file to trigger the crash repeatedly. This results in service interruption for legitimate users who depend on continuous access to these services. In cloud-based or shared hosting scenarios, this denial of service can affect multiple tenants if the vulnerability exists within a multi-tenant architecture where one user's input affects the stability of the underlying process serving others. The lack of robust error recovery mechanisms means that manual intervention is often required to restart the affected processes, increasing operational overhead and downtime costs.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patching as well as defensive coding practices for future development. Users running versions 4.6.0 through 4.6.8 or 4.4.0 through 4.4.18 are advised to upgrade to the latest stable release where this parsing logic has been hardened with proper bounds checking and exception handling. In cases where immediate patching is not feasible, network-level controls such as deep packet inspection or file filtering proxies can be deployed to block suspicious file types or sizes before they reach the vulnerable application layer. Additionally, implementing input validation rules that reject files exceeding expected size limits or containing non-standard structures can reduce the attack surface significantly until a permanent fix is applied.
This vulnerability maps directly to CWE-20 Improper Input Validation and potentially CWE-119 Memory Buffer Corruption if memory overwrites are involved in the crash mechanism. From an offensive security perspective, it falls under MITRE ATT&CK technique T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service, which describes methods used by adversaries to disrupt access to systems or services. Understanding these mappings helps organizations prioritize remediation efforts based on industry-standard risk frameworks and ensures that defensive measures are aligned with known threat actor behaviors targeting application stability through resource exhaustion via crashes.