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WiresharkApplication

CVE-2006-4574

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2006-10-28
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.99.3 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
Off-by-one error in the MIME Multipart dissector in Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) 0.10.1 through 0.99.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via certain vectors that trigger an assertion error related to unexpected length values.

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

Off-by-one error in the MIME Multipart dissector in Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) versions 0.10.1 through 0.99.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via crash triggered by an assertion error when processing malformed packets with unexpected length values.

MitigationUpgrade Wireshark to a version newer than 0.99.3 to resolve the off-by-one vulnerability in the MIME Multipart dissector.

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
WiresharkApplication
Affected:>= 0.10.1, <= 0.99.3

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. Determine installed Wireshark version
    Run 'wireshark -v' or 'tshark -v' from command line, or check Help > About Wireshark in the GUI
    Affected if The version shown is between 0.10.1 and 0.99.3 inclusive
  2. Verify MIME Multipart dissector is loaded
    In Wireshark GUI, go to Analyze > Enabled Protocols and search for 'mime' or 'multipart', or check if the dissector appears in the packet details of MIME Multipart traffic
    Affected if The MIME Multipart dissector is enabled and able to process packet data
  3. Confirm packet capture processing context
    Identify if Wireshark is actively parsing capture files or live network traffic that may contain MIME Multipart content (e.g., HTTP email attachments, form-data)
    Affected if Wireshark is processing or will process capture files containing MIME Multipart packets

You are affected if Wireshark version is 0.10.1 through 0.99.3 and you analyze capture files or live traffic containing MIME Multipart packets.

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 a release after 0.99.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Wireshark to a version newer than 0.99.3 to resolve the off-by-one vulnerability in the MIME Multipart dissector.

Fix this in Wireshark Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2006-4574 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