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EtherealApplication

CVE-2004-0365

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2004-05-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.10.3 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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 dissect_attribute_value_pairs function in packet-radius.c for Ethereal 0.8.13 to 0.10.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a malformed RADIUS packet that triggers a null dereference.

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

A null pointer dereference vulnerability exists in Ethereal (now Wireshark) versions 0.8.13 through 0.10.2 within the dissect_attribute_value_pairs function in packet-radius.c. By sending a malformed RADIUS packet, an attacker can trigger a null dereference causing the application to crash, resulting in denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade Ethereal/Wireshark to a version beyond 0.10.2. If upgrading is not feasible, avoid processing RADIUS traffic from untrusted sources until the patch can be applied.

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:>= 0.8.13, < 0.10.3

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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. Identify installed Ethereal or Wireshark version
    Run ethereal -v or wireshark -v to obtain the exact version number
    Affected if The version is greater than or equal to 0.8.13 and less than 0.10.3
  2. Confirm the RADIUS dissector is loaded
    Check if the RADIUS protocol parser is available in the installation by examining the supported protocols or dissector files
    Affected if The RADIUS dissector module is present in the application
  3. Determine if RADIUS traffic capture or processing is possible
    Verify if the system is configured to parse or analyze RADIUS packets, such as through capture files or live network monitoring
    Affected if RADIUS packet dissection can be performed on the system

You are affected if your installed Ethereal/Wireshark version falls within 0.8.13 through 0.10.2 and the RADIUS dissector is enabled or can process RADIUS 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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.10.3 or later
Fixed in 0.10.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Ethereal/Wireshark to a version beyond 0.10.2. If upgrading is not feasible, avoid processing RADIUS traffic from untrusted sources until the patch can be applied.

Fix this in Ethereal Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.

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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-2004-0365 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