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WiresharkApplication

CVE-2020-15466

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-07-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.2.4 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
In Wireshark 3.2.0 to 3.2.4, the GVCP dissector could go into an infinite loop. This was addressed in epan/dissectors/packet-gvcp.c by ensuring that an offset increases in all situations.

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

In Wireshark 3.2.0 through 3.2.4, the GVCP (GigaVision Control Protocol) dissector contains an infinite loop vulnerability in packet-gvcp.c. The vulnerability occurs when the dissector fails to properly advance a parsing offset, causing the loop to never terminate. A remote attacker could trigger this by sending specially crafted GVCP packets, causing Wireshark to hang or consume excessive CPU.

MitigationUpgrade Wireshark to version 3.2.5 or later, where the offset increment logic was corrected to ensure progress in all code paths.

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:>= 3.2.0, <= 3.2.4
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.1= 15.2

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. Check installed Wireshark version
    Run 'wireshark --version' or 'tshark --version' from command line to retrieve the exact version number
    Affected if Version is 3.2.0, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, or 3.2.4
  2. Confirm GVCP dissector is present
    Locate the file packet-gvcp.c in the Wireshark installation directory or epan/dissectors/ folder
    Affected if The GVCP dissector file exists in the Wireshark installation
  3. Verify GVCP protocol is being dissected
    Inspect active protocol statistics or capture file to determine if GVCP (GigaVision Control Protocol) traffic is present in network captures
    Affected if GVCP protocol packets are being processed by Wireshark
  4. Check for symptoms of infinite loop
    Monitor Wireshark process CPU usage while opening a capture file or live-capturing GVCP traffic
    Affected if Wireshark hangs or shows sustained high CPU consumption when processing GVCP packets

User is affected if Wireshark version is 3.2.0 through 3.2.4 and GVCP protocol traffic is being dissected.

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 3.2.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Wireshark to version 3.2.5 or later, where the offset increment logic was corrected to ensure progress in all code paths.

Fix this in Wireshark Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.

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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-2020-15466 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