Ethereal: Multiple security problems

Security Team Contact Address

Updated June 04, 2004

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200406-01 / Ethereal
Release Date	June 04, 2004
Latest Revision	May 22, 2006: 02
Impact	high
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
net-analyzer/ethereal	<= 0.10.3	>= 0.10.4	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #51022

Synopsis

Multiple vulnerabilities including one buffer overflow exist in Ethereal, which may allow an attacker to run arbitrary code or crash the program.

2. Impact Information

Background

Ethereal is a feature rich network protocol analyzer.

Description

There are multiple vulnerabilities in versions of Ethereal earlier than 0.10.4, including:

A buffer overflow in the MMSE dissector.
Under specific conditions a SIP packet could make Ethereal crash.
The AIM dissector could throw an assertion, causing Ethereal to crash.
The SPNEGO dissector could dereference a null pointer, causing a crash.

Impact

An attacker could use these vulnerabilities to crash Ethereal or even execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running Ethereal, which could be the root user.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

For a temporary workaround you can disable all affected protocol dissectors by selecting Analyze->Enabled Protocols... and deselecting them from the list. However, it is strongly recommended to upgrade to the latest stable release.

Resolution

All Ethereal users should upgrade to the latest stable version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge sync

# emerge -pv ">=net-analyzer/ethereal-0.10.4"
# emerge ">=net-analyzer/ethereal-0.10.4"

4. References