CVE-2026-5405
Description
A flaw was found in the RDP protocol dissector in Wireshark. This issue occurs when malformed packets are decoded from a pcap file or the network, causing a heap-based buffer overflow, resulting in a denial of service or potentially in code execution.
Statement
This issue will cause a crash in Wireshark and potentially result in code execution. This flaw can only be exploited when a malformed pcap file is processed. Due to these reasons, this vulnerability has been rated with an important severity.
Mitigation
If the RDP 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 | 7.8 | N/A | 7.8 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Buffer overflows generally lead to crashes. Other attacks leading to lack of availability are possible, including putting the program into an infinite loop.
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism; Modify Memory
Buffer overflows often can be used to execute arbitrary code, which is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy. Besides important user data, heap-based overflows can be used to overwrite function pointers that may be living in memory, pointing it to the attacker's code. Even in applications that do not explicitly use function pointers, the run-time will usually leave many in memory. For example, object methods in C++ are generally implemented using function pointers. Even in C programs, there is often a global offset table used by the underlying runtime.
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control,Other
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other
When the consequence is arbitrary code execution, this can often be used to subvert any other security service.
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