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EtherealApplication · Ethereal Group

CVE-2002-0353

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2002-06-25
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The ASN.1 parser in Ethereal 0.9.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a certain malformed packet, which causes Ethereal to allocate memory incorrectly, possibly due to zero-length fields.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The ASN.1 parser in Ethereal 0.9.2 and earlier contains a memory allocation flaw triggered by malformed packets containing zero-length fields, causing a denial of service via crash.

MitigationUpgrade Ethereal/Wireshark to a version newer than 0.9.2 that includes the patched ASN.1 parser, or apply vendor-supplied patches if available.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
EtherealApplication
Affected:= 0.9.1= 0.9.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if Ethereal or Wireshark is installed
    Locate the ethereal or wireshark executable in the system path or common installation directories (e.g., /usr/bin/ethereal, /usr/bin/wireshark, C:\Program Files\Ethereal\ethereal.exe). Use command 'which ethereal' on Linux/Unix or search for the executable on Windows.
    Affected if Ethereal or Wireshark is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed Ethereal version
    Run the executable with a version flag, typically 'ethereal -v' or 'wireshark -v' from the command line. The output will display the version number such as 0.9.1, 0.9.2, or later.
    Affected if The displayed version is 0.9.1 or 0.9.2 specifically
  3. Verify the ASN.1 parser module is available
    Check for the presence of ASN.1-related dissector files or plugins in the Ethereal installation directory (commonly in lib/ethereal/plugins/ or similar). The vulnerability exists in the ASN.1 parser component used for dissecting protocol traffic.
    Affected if The ASN.1 parser module is loaded or available for packet dissection

A system is affected if Ethereal version 0.9.1 or 0.9.2 is installed and the ASN.1 parser is active for processing network traffic.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Ethereal/Wireshark to a version newer than 0.9.2 that includes the patched ASN.1 parser, or apply vendor-supplied patches if available.

Fix this in Ethereal Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2002-0353 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data