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WiresharkApplication

CVE-2018-11361

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-05-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
In Wireshark 2.6.0, the IEEE 802.11 protocol dissector could crash. This was addressed in epan/crypt/dot11decrypt.c by avoiding a buffer overflow during FTE processing in Dot11DecryptTDLSDeriveKey.

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

Wireshark 2.6.0 contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in the IEEE 802.11 protocol dissector. The flaw exists in the Dot11DecryptTDLSDeriveKey function within epan/crypt/dot11decrypt.c during FTE (Frame Toggle Encryption) processing, which can cause the dissector to crash.

MitigationUpdate Wireshark to a version later than 2.6.0 that includes the patch for this vulnerability. If immediate updating is not possible, exercise caution when processing potentially malicious 802.11 traffic files.

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:= 2.6.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/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 Wireshark version
    Run 'wireshark --version' or check Help > About Wireshark to confirm the exact version number
    Affected if The version is exactly 2.6.0
  2. Confirm IEEE 802.11 dissector is in use
    Open a packet capture file or capture live traffic containing 802.11 (Wi-Fi) frames and verify the dissector processes them
    Affected if You are actively dissecting IEEE 802.11 wireless traffic with Wireshark 2.6.0
  3. Verify FTE (Frame Toggle Encryption) is present in traffic
    Inspect the 802.11 frames in the capture for FTE encrypted frames or TDLS (Tunneled Direct-Link Setup) Setup frames
    Affected if The captured 802.11 traffic contains FTE processing or TDLS frames that trigger the vulnerable code path in Dot11DecryptTDLSDeriveKey

You are affected if running Wireshark exactly version 2.6.0 and processing capture files containing IEEE 802.11 traffic with FTE or TDLS frames that trigger the vulnerable dot11decrypt dissector function.

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

Update Wireshark to a version later than 2.6.0 that includes the patch for this vulnerability. If immediate updating is not possible, exercise caution when processing potentially malicious 802.11 traffic files.

Fix this in Wireshark Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2018-11361 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