Multiple format string vulnerabilities in the (1) DHCP and (2) ANSI A dissectors in Ethereal before 0.10.11 may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Updated Ethereal packages that fix various security vulnerabilities are now available.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The ethereal package is a program for monitoring network traffic.

A number of security flaws have been discovered in Ethereal. On a system where Ethereal is running, a remote attacker could send malicious packets to trigger these flaws and cause Ethereal to crash or potentially execute arbitrary code. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2005-1456, CVE-2005-1457, CVE-2005-1458, CVE-2005-1459, CVE-2005-1460, CVE-2005-1461, CVE-2005-1462, CVE-2005-1463, CVE-2005-1464, CVE-2005-1465, CVE-2005-1466, CVE-2005-1467, CVE-2005-1468, CVE-2005-1469, and CVE-2005-1470 to these issues.

Users of ethereal should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain version 0.10.11 which is not vulnerable to these issues.

An Ethreal Security Advisories reports :

An aggressive testing program as well as independent discovery has turned up a multitude of security issues

Please reference CVE/URL list for details

A number of vulnerabilities were discovered in previous version of Ethereal that have been fixed in the 0.10.11 release, including :

  - The ANSI A and DHCP dissectors are vulnerable to format     string vulnerabilities.

  - The DISTCC, FCELS, SIP, ISIS, CMIP, CMP, CMS, CRMF, ESS,     OCSP, PKIX1Explitit, PKIX Qualified, X.509, Q.931,     MEGACO, NCP, ISUP, TCAP and Presentation dissectors are     vulnerable to buffer overflows.

  - The KINK, WSP, SMB Mailslot, H.245, MGCP, Q.931, RPC,     GSM and SMB NETLOGON dissectors are vulnerable to     pointer handling errors.

  - The LMP, KINK, MGCP, RSVP, SRVLOC, EIGRP, MEGACO, DLSw,     NCP and L2TP dissectors are vulnerable to looping     problems.

  - The Telnet and DHCP dissectors could abort.

  - The TZSP, Bittorrent, SMB, MGCP and ISUP dissectors     could cause a segmentation fault.

  - The WSP, 802.3 Slow protocols, BER, SMB Mailslot, SMB,     NDPS, IAX2, RADIUS, SMB PIPE, MRDISC and TCAP dissectors     could throw assertions.

  - The DICOM, NDPS and ICEP dissectors are vulnerable to     memory handling errors.

  - The GSM MAP, AIM, Fibre Channel,SRVLOC, NDPS, LDAP and     NTLMSSP dissectors could terminate abnormallly.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200505-03 (Ethereal: Numerous vulnerabilities)

    There are numerous vulnerabilities in versions of Ethereal prior     to 0.10.11, including:
    The ANSI A and DHCP dissectors are     vulnerable to format string vulnerabilities.
    The DISTCC,     FCELS, SIP, ISIS, CMIP, CMP, CMS, CRMF, ESS, OCSP, PKIX1Explitit, PKIX     Qualified, X.509, Q.931, MEGACO, NCP, ISUP, TCAP and Presentation     dissectors are vulnerable to buffer overflows.
    The KINK, WSP,     SMB Mailslot, H.245, MGCP, Q.931, RPC, GSM and SMB NETLOGON dissectors     are vulnerable to pointer handling errors.
    The LMP, KINK,     MGCP, RSVP, SRVLOC, EIGRP, MEGACO, DLSw, NCP and L2TP dissectors are     vulnerable to looping problems.
    The Telnet and DHCP dissectors     could abort.
    The TZSP, Bittorrent, SMB, MGCP and ISUP     dissectors could cause a segmentation fault.
    The WSP, 802.3     Slow protocols, BER, SMB Mailslot, SMB, NDPS, IAX2, RADIUS, SMB PIPE,     MRDISC and TCAP dissectors could throw assertions.
    The DICOM,     NDPS and ICEP dissectors are vulnerable to memory handling errors.
    The GSM MAP, AIM, Fibre Channel,SRVLOC, NDPS, LDAP and NTLMSSP     dissectors could terminate abnormallly.
  Impact :

    An attacker might be able to use these vulnerabilities to crash     Ethereal and execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user     running Ethereal, which could be the root user.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
21824	CentOS 3 / 4 : ethereal (CESA-2005:427)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
18986	FreeBSD : ethereal -- multiple protocol dissectors vulnerabilities (76adaab0-e4e3-11d9-b875-0001020eed82)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	high
18386	RHEL 2.1 / 3 / 4 : ethereal (RHSA-2005:427)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
18237	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : ethereal (MDKSA-2005:083)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
18229	GLSA-200505-03 : Ethereal: Numerous vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2005-1463

critical

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high