CVE-2026-3203
Description
A flaw was found in the RF4CE Profile dissector in Wireshark. This issue occurs when malformed packets are decoded from a pcap file or the network, causing a buffer over-read, 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 RF4CE Profile 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 | 5.5 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Network | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| 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:L/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)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to get secret values, such as memory addresses, which can bypass protection mechanisms such as ASLR in order to improve the reliability and likelihood of exploiting a separate weakness to achieve code execution instead of just denial of service.
Availability,Integrity
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker might be able to cause a crash or other denial of service by causing the product to read a memory location that is not allowed (such as a segmentation fault), or to cause other conditions in which the read operation returns more data than is expected.
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