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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2016-4079

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-04-25
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
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
epan/dissectors/packet-pktc.c in the PKTC dissector in Wireshark 1.12.x before 1.12.11 and 2.0.x before 2.0.3 does not verify BER identifiers, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write 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 confidence

The PKTC dissector in Wireshark fails to validate BER (Basic Encoding Rules) identifiers before processing packet data, allowing malformed packets to trigger out-of-bounds memory writes that crash the application.

MitigationUpgrade Wireshark to version 1.12.11 or later (1.12.x) or 2.0.3 or later (2.0.x). Until upgrade, avoid opening untrusted packet capture files from unverified sources.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
WiresharkApplication
Affected:= 1.12.0= 1.12.1= 1.12.2= 1.12.3= 1.12.4= 1.12.5= 1.12.6= 1.12.7= 1.12.8= 1.12.9= 1.12.10= 2.0.0
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 11.3

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/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 --version' or 'tshark --version' from command line to identify the exact Wireshark version
    Affected if Version matches 1.12.0 through 1.12.10 or 2.0.0 (exact versions listed in affected products)
  2. Confirm PKTC dissector availability
    Open Wireshark GUI, go to Analyze > Enabled Protocols, or run 'tshark -G protocols' and search for 'PKTC' in the output
    Affected if PKTC protocol is present and enabled in the protocol list (dissector is enabled by default)
  3. Verify recent capture file activity
    Check for recent .pcap, .pcapng, or other capture files opened from untrusted or unknown sources, or examine capture history in Wireshark recent files
    Affected if User has opened packet captures from unverified or untrusted sources since installing the affected version

User is affected if Wireshark version is 1.12.0-1.12.10 or 2.0.0 AND the PKTC dissector is enabled AND they process packet capture files from untrusted sources containing malformed BER-encoded PKTC 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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Wireshark to version 1.12.11 or later (1.12.x) or 2.0.3 or later (2.0.x). Until upgrade, avoid opening untrusted packet capture files from unverified sources.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2016-4079 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