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CVE-2025-5601: Denial of Service Vulnerability in Wireshark 4.4.0 to 4.4.6 and 4.2.0 to 4.2.12

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Overview

The CVE-2025-5601 is a significant vulnerability that affects Wireshark versions 4.4.0 to 4.4.6 and 4.2.0 to 4.2.12. Wireshark, a widely used network protocol analyzer, is crucial for network troubleshoot, analysis, software and communication protocol development, and education. The vulnerability lies in the column handling crashes, which allows denial of service via packet injection or a crafted capture file. This poses a severe threat to organizations and systems relying on these versions of Wireshark, as it can potentially compromise systems and lead to data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-5601
Severity: High (7.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Denial of Service, Potential system compromise, and data leakage

Affected Products

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Product | Affected Versions

Wireshark | 4.4.0 to 4.4.6
Wireshark | 4.2.0 to 4.2.12

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability stems from the column handling in Wireshark. An attacker can inject a specially crafted packet or capture file which causes a system crash when processed by the affected versions of Wireshark. The crash results in a denial of service, but in some cases, it might also lead to potential system compromise or data leakage.

Conceptual Example Code

Here’s a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability by injecting a malicious packet:

# The attacker crafts a malicious packet
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" > malicious_packet.bin
# The attacker injects the malicious packet into the network stream
cat malicious_packet.bin | nc target.example.com 443

In this example, the attacker crafts a malicious packet (`malicious_packet.bin`) and injects it into the network stream using netcat (`nc`). When this packet is processed by the affected versions of Wireshark, it triggers the vulnerability and causes a system crash, leading to a denial of service.

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Disclaimer:

The information and code presented in this article are provided for educational and defensive cybersecurity purposes only. Any conceptual or pseudocode examples are simplified representations intended to raise awareness and promote secure development and system configuration practices.

Do not use this information to attempt unauthorized access or exploit vulnerabilities on systems that you do not own or have explicit permission to test.

Ameeba and its authors do not endorse or condone malicious behavior and are not responsible for misuse of the content. Always follow ethical hacking guidelines, responsible disclosure practices, and local laws.

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