CVE-2026-3201
Description
A flaw was found in the USB HID dissector in Wireshark. This issue occurs when malformed packets are decoded from a pcap file or the network, causing an excessive consumption of memory, resulting in a denial of service.
Statement
This issue will cause a crash in Wireshark with no other security impact. Also, this flaw can only be exploited when a malformed pcap file is processed. Due to these reasons, this vulnerability has been rated with a moderate severity.
Mitigation
If the USB HID protocol dissector is not being used, it can be disabled via the "Enabled Protocols" dialog box in the Wireshark GUI application. This will also disable the protocol dissector when using "tshark", the command line tool.
See the links below for instructions to disable a protocol in Wireshark, specifically the "Control Protocol Dissection" section and the "disabled_protos" configuration file option.
https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChCustProtocolDissectionSection.html
https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChAppFilesConfigurationSection.html
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 v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.5 | 7.5 | 4.7 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Network | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | High |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | Required | None | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | None | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | None |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
The most reliable way this vulnerability is exploited is by tricking a user into opening and processing a crafted capture file with Wireshark. To reflect this condition, the attack vector metric is set to local and the user interaction metric is set to required.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Not controlling memory allocation can result in a request for too much system memory, possibly leading to a crash of the application due to out-of-memory conditions, or the consumption of a large amount of memory on the system.
Frequently Asked Questions
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