CVE-2015-3812
Description
A flaw was found in X11 dissector of wireshark of which an attacker could make wireshark consume excessive CPU resources which could make system unresponsive by injecting specially crafted packet onto the wire or by convincing wireshark user to read malformed packet trace file.
Mitigation
This flaw can be mitigated in wireshark by disabling the X11 protocol dissector. In wireshark GUI application click on Analyze->Enabled Protocols and search for "X11" and disable in. When using "tshark", the text interface, create a file called "disabled_protos" in the preferences folder (normally .wireshark folder in the home directory of the user running wireshark) and add "X11" to it. This should disable the X11 protocol.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.3 | 7.8 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Medium | Low | N/A |
| Authentication | None | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Partial | Complete | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
NVD: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Instability; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Most memory leaks result in general product reliability problems, but if an attacker can intentionally trigger a memory leak, the attacker might be able to launch a denial of service attack (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected program behavior resulting from a low memory condition.
Other
Technical Impact: Reduce Performance
Frequently Asked Questions
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