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WiresharkApplication

CVE-2015-8741

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-01-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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_ppi function in epan/dissectors/packet-ppi.c in the PPI dissector in Wireshark 2.0.x before 2.0.1 does not initialize a packet-header data structure, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (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 confidence

The PPI dissector in Wireshark 2.0.x before 2.0.1 contains an uninitialized memory vulnerability in the dissect_ppi function within packet-ppi.c. When processing a crafted packet, the function fails to initialize a packet-header data structure before use, leading to undefined behavior that causes the application to crash. This is a denial-of-service vulnerability exploitable remotely via malformed PPI packets.

MitigationUpgrade Wireshark to version 2.0.1 or later. Until then, avoid opening untrusted PPI packet capture files or disable the PPI dissector if not needed.

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:= 2.0.0

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
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 checks

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

  1. Determine Wireshark version
    Run 'wireshark --version' or 'tshark --version' from command line to identify the installed Wireshark release
    Affected if The version reported is 2.0.0 specifically
  2. Confirm PPI dissector presence
    Check for the presence of packet-ppi.c in the Wireshark installation or examine the dissector list in Wireshark under Analyze > Enabled Protocols
    Affected if The PPI dissector appears in the list of available dissectors and is enabled
  3. Verify PPI dissector is enabled
    In Wireshark GUI, go to Analyze > Enabled Protocols and search for 'ppi' or inspect the enabled_protos file in the Wireshark configuration directory
    Affected if The PPI dissector is marked as enabled (not disabled with a leading dash)

You are affected if you have Wireshark version 2.0.0 and the PPI dissector is enabled in your configuration.

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 Wireshark to version 2.0.1 or later. Until then, avoid opening untrusted PPI packet capture files or disable the PPI dissector if not needed.

Fix this in Wireshark Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,340
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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-2015-8741 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
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