Wireshark up to 4.2.12/4.4.6 Column buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Wireshark up to 4.2.12/4.4.6. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Column Handler. Performing a manipulation results in buffer overflow. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2025-5601. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Wireshark up to 4.2.12/4.4.6. It has been classified as problematic. This affects an unknown code of the component Column Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

Column handling crashes in Wireshark 4.4.0 to 4.4.6 and 4.2.0 to 4.2.12 allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file

It is possible to read the advisory at wireshark.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-5601 since 06/04/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237767 (Wireshark 4.2.x < 4.2.12 A Vulnerability (macOS)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.2.13 or 4.4.7 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (237767), EUVD (EUVD-2025-16867) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1850). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Xerox FreeFlow Print Server

Productinfo

Type

• Packet Analyzer Software

Name

• Wireshark

Version

• 4.2.0
• 4.2.1
• 4.2.2
• 4.2.3
• 4.2.4
• 4.2.5
• 4.2.6
• 4.2.7
• 4.2.8
• 4.2.9
• 4.2.10
• 4.2.11
• 4.2.12
• 4.4.0
• 4.4.1
• 4.4.2
• 4.4.3
• 4.4.4
• 4.4.5
• 4.4.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.wireshark.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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