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Wireshark EUVDEUVD-2026-32629

| CVE-2026-9759 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-05-27 GitLab GHSA-q2f9-8cg7-wv42
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Craft malformed ROHC packet capture file
  2. Delivery
    Deliver .pcap/.pcapng to target analyst
  3. Exploit
    Victim opens file in vulnerable Wireshark
  4. Execution
    ROHC dissector dereferences null pointer
  5. Impact
    Wireshark process crashes (DoS)

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

The victim must have a vulnerable version of Wireshark (4.6.0-4.6.5 or 4.4.0-4.4.15) installed and must manually open a packet capture file containing malformed ROHC protocol data - confirmed by CVSS UI:R (user interaction required). The attack vector is strictly local (CVSS AV:L); there is no network-based or remote exploitation path. The ROHC dissector must be enabled (it is enabled by default in Wireshark installations that support it, but can be disabled as a mitigation). No authentication or elevated privileges are required on the attacker's side (CVSS PR:N), but the attacker must have a delivery mechanism to place the malicious capture file in front of the victim. Exploitation is limited to a process crash only - no code execution, privilege escalation, or data exfiltration is possible based on the C:N/I:N impact vector and the nature of CWE-476.

Impact

The CVSS 5.5 (Medium) score accurately reflects a constrained risk profile. The vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H indicates local-only exploitation requiring user interaction, with no confidentiality or integrity impact - only a high availability impact (process crash). SSVC corroborates this: exploitation status is none, the vulnerability is not automatable, and technical impact is partial. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, and no public exploit code has been identified. EPSS data was not provided in the available intelligence, so probabilistic exploitation likelihood cannot be quantified. Taken together, this is a low-urgency issue: it cannot be triggered remotely without the victim actively opening a malicious capture file, it crashes only the Wireshark GUI process (no persistence or privilege escalation), and there is no evidence of active exploitation. Prioritization should focus on environments where analysts routinely open untrusted or externally sourced capture files.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker crafts a malicious packet capture file (.pcap or .pcapng) containing specially malformed ROHC-compressed header data designed to trigger a null pointer dereference in Wireshark's ROHC dissector. The attacker delivers this file to a network analyst or security researcher - via email attachment, file share, or a compromised traffic feed - and induces the victim to open it in Wireshark. Upon parsing the malformed ROHC data, the dissector dereferences a null pointer, immediately crashing the Wireshark process and disrupting any active analysis session. No public proof-of-concept has been identified at time of analysis.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – May 27, 2026

Null pointer dereference in Wireshark's ROHC protocol dissector causes application crashes across two active release branches, constituting a denial-of-service condition. Affected versions span Wireshark 4.6.0 through 4.6.5 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.15; patched releases 4.6.6 and 4.4.16 are available per the vendor advisory wnpa-sec-2026-51. The attack vector is local with required user interaction (CVSS AV:L/UI:R), meaning exploitation requires a victim to open a specially crafted packet capture file - no remote or automated exploitation path exists, and no public exploit code or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to Wireshark 4.6.6 (for users on the 4.6.x branch) or Wireshark 4.4.16 (for users on the 4.4.x branch) - these are the confirmed patched releases per EUVD-2026-32629 and the vendor advisory at https://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2026-51.html. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, a compensating control is to disable the ROHC dissector within Wireshark's protocol preferences (Analyze > Enabled Protocols), which prevents the vulnerable code path from executing when parsing capture files; the trade-off is loss of ROHC traffic decoding capability. Additionally, restrict analysts to opening only capture files from trusted, verified sources, and avoid opening unsolicited or externally provided .pcap/.pcapng files until patched.

Affected VersionsENISA

Wireshark 4.6.0 <4.6.6
Wireshark 4.4.0 <4.4.16

Affected Packages

euvd wireshark fix: 4.4.16, 4.6.6

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

ROHC (Robust Header Compression, RFC 3095) is a header compression protocol primarily used in mobile and cellular network environments to reduce IP/UDP/RTP overhead over lossy links. Wireshark's ROHC dissector parses these compressed headers when analyzing packet captures containing ROHC traffic. The root cause is CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference): when the dissector encounters a malformed or adversarially crafted ROHC packet, it attempts to dereference a pointer that has not been properly initialized or validated, resulting in a segmentation fault and process crash. The CPE identifier cpe:2.3:a:wireshark_foundation:wireshark:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers both affected branches. This class of bug is common in protocol dissectors that process complex, variable-length header fields without exhaustive input validation at every dereference point.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SUSE MEDIUM
Red Hat 5.5 MEDIUM

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

1
Patch available
May 27, 2026 - 21:04 EUVD

DescriptionCVE.org

ROHC protocol dissector crash in Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.5 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.15 allows denial of service

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.0%
Top 98% exploitable
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.0%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

28
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +28
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

CVE-2014-2299 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Mar 11

Buffer overflow in the mpeg_read function in wiretap/mpeg.c in the MPEG parser in Wireshark 1.8.x before 1.8.13 and 1.10

CVE-2013-4074 MEDIUM POC
5.0 Jun 09

The dissect_capwap_data function in epan/dissectors/packet-capwap.c in the CAPWAP dissector in Wireshark 1.6.x before 1.

CVE-2018-6836 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Feb 08

The netmonrec_comment_destroy function in wiretap/netmon.c in Wireshark through 2.4.4 performs a free operation on an un

CVE-2014-4174 CRITICAL POC
9.3 Jun 18

wiretap/libpcap.c in the libpcap file parser in Wireshark 1.10.x before 1.10.4 allows remote attackers to execute arbitr

CVE-2017-9353 HIGH POC
7.5 Jun 02

In Wireshark 2.2.0 to 2.2.6, the IPv6 dissector could crash. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remot

CVE-2017-17085 HIGH POC
7.5 Dec 01

In Wireshark 2.4.0 to 2.4.2 and 2.2.0 to 2.2.10, the CIP Safety dissector could crash. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), t

CVE-2017-9347 HIGH POC
7.5 Jun 02

In Wireshark 2.2.0 to 2.2.6, the ROS dissector could crash with a NULL pointer dereference. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.

CVE-2025-5601 HIGH POC
7.8 Jun 04

A denial of service vulnerability in Column handling crashes in Wireshark 4.4.0 to 4.4.6 and 4.2.0 to 4.2.12 (CVSS 7.8)

CVE-2023-4513 HIGH POC
7.5 Aug 24

BT SDP dissector memory leak in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.7 and 3.6.0 to 3.6.15 allows denial of service via packet injecti

CVE-2023-4512 HIGH POC
7.5 Aug 24

CBOR dissector crash in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.6 allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file.

CVE-2023-2879 HIGH POC
7.5 May 26

GDSDB infinite loop in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.5 and 3.6.0 to 3.6.13 allows denial of service via packet injection or cra

CVE-2023-1992 HIGH POC
7.5 Apr 12

RPCoRDMA dissector crash in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.4 and 3.6.0 to 3.6.12 allows denial of service via packet injection o

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 Fixed

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