Wireshark EUVD-2026-88716

Exploitation requires the victim to open a specially crafted capture file in the Catapult DCT2000 format (or one that routes packets through the DCT2000 dissector) using an affected Wireshark version (4.6.0-4.6.8 or 4.4.0-4.4.18). It is local and client-side (AV:L) and requires user interaction (UI:R) - the analyst must actively load the malicious file; there is no unauthenticated remote or network-triggered path. Impact is limited to a crash of the Wireshark process (availability only); no code execution, data disclosure, or integrity impact is indicated by the vector.

This is a genuine but low-priority issue. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) describes a local, availability-only impact requiring user interaction - the analyst must open a maliciously crafted Catapult DCT2000 capture file in a vulnerable Wireshark build. There is no confidentiality or integrity impact (C:N/I:N), and the outcome is a recoverable application crash, not code execution, despite the CWE-121 'stack-based buffer overflow' classification and the 'Buffer Overflow'/'Stack Overflow' tags. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or public exploit was provided, so this is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The 5.5 base score is well-calibrated and NOT an inflated high-CVSS-but-low-risk case; conversely the score is honest about the limited local DoS impact. Note the CWE-121 stack overflow label could in principle suggest exploitability beyond DoS, but the vendor vector explicitly scopes impact to availability only (A:H, C:N, I:N) - treat this as a crash/DoS, not RCE.

An attacker crafts a malformed Catapult DCT2000-format capture file and delivers it to an analyst (e.g., as a 'please analyze this traffic' sample). When the analyst opens it in Wireshark 4.6.0-4.6.8 or 4.4.0-4.4.18, the DCT2000 dissector triggers a stack-based buffer overflow and crashes the application. No public exploit code was identified in the provided intelligence; exploitation requires local file handling and user interaction.