WiresharkApplication
CVE-2015-8723
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 · uneditedThe AirPDcapPacketProcess function in epan/crypt/airpdcap.c in the 802.11 dissector in Wireshark 1.12.x before 1.12.9 and 2.0.x before 2.0.1 does not validate the relationship between the total length and the capture length, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow and application crash) via a crafted packet.
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 confidenceThe AirPDcapPacketProcess function in Wireshark's 802.11 wireless protocol dissector (epan/crypt/airpdcap.c) fails to validate the relationship between total packet length and capture length before processing, leading to a stack-based buffer overflow when parsing specially crafted 802.11 packets.
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
= 1.12.0= 1.12.1= 1.12.2= 1.12.3= 1.12.4= 1.12.5= 1.12.6= 1.12.7= 1.12.8CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if Wireshark is installedRun 'wireshark --version' or 'tshark --version' to confirm Wireshark is present and retrieve the installed versionAffected if Wireshark is installed and returns a version number
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Verify the installed version falls within the affected rangeCompare the version number obtained from the previous step against the affected versions: 1.12.0, 1.12.1, 1.12.2, 1.12.3, 1.12.4, 1.12.5, 1.12.6, 1.12.7, or 1.12.8Affected if The installed version exactly matches one of these versions: 1.12.0 through 1.12.8
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Confirm the 802.11 wireless protocol dissector component is presentCheck for the presence of the airpdcap dissector module in the Wireshark installation directory; on Linux this may be in /usr/lib/wireshark/plugins or similar, and the component handles 802.11 wireless packet decryptionAffected if The airpdcap 802.11 wireless dissector module is loaded or available in the installation
A user is affected if they have Wireshark version 1.12.0 through 1.12.8 installed with the 802.11 wireless protocol dissector enabled.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade Wireshark to version 1.12.9 or later (1.12.x branch) or 2.0.1 or later (2.0.x branch). Avoid opening untrusted packet capture files until patched.
Fix this in Wireshark
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-8723 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-8723 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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