Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2026-25061

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.6.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit 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
tcpflow is a TCP/IP packet demultiplexer. In versions up to and including 1.61, wifipcap parses 802.11 management frame elements and performs a length check on the wrong field when handling the TIM element. A crafted frame with a large TIM length can cause a 1-byte out-of-bounds write past `tim.bitmap[251]`. The overflow is small and DoS is the likely impact; code execution is potential, but still up in the air. The affected structure is stack-allocated in `handle_beacon()` and related handlers. As of time of publication, no known patches are available.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-787

The program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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:= 11.0
TcpflowApplication
Affected:<= 1.6.1

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.6.1
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Migrate from Debian 11 (end-of-life) to Debian 12 or later, then install latest available tcpflow package

  1. 1. Check for updated tcpflow packages in Debian 12 (Bookworm) or later repositories, as Debian 11 (Bullseye) is now end-of-life and receives no further updates
  2. 2. If using Debian 11, plan migration to Debian 12 for continued security support
  3. 3. Monitor Debian security tracker (security.debian.org) and the tcpflow project GitHub for future security updates
  4. 4. As a defensive measure, consider restricting tcpflow's network access or running it in an isolated container to limit impact of potential exploitation
  5. 5. Implement network-level filtering to block potentially malicious 802.11 management frames if tcpflow is processing wireless traffic from untrusted sources
Caveat Upgrading entire Debian distribution may require compatibility testing of other software and services running on the system

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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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-2026-25061 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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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