Ethereal: Buffer overflow in OSPF protocol dissector

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200512-06 / Ethereal
Release Date	December 14, 2005
Latest Revision	December 14, 2005: 01
Impact	high
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
net-analyzer/ethereal	< 0.10.13-r2	>= 0.10.13-r2	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #115030

Synopsis

Ethereal is missing bounds checking in the OSPF protocol dissector that could lead to abnormal program termination or the execution of arbitrary code.

2. Impact Information

Background

Ethereal is a feature-rich network protocol analyzer. It provides protocol analyzers for various network flows, including one for Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Interior Gateway Protocol.

Description

iDEFENSE reported a possible overflow due to the lack of bounds checking in the dissect_ospf_v3_address_prefix() function, part of the OSPF protocol dissector.

Impact

An attacker might be able to craft a malicious network flow that would crash Ethereal. It may be possible, though unlikely, to exploit this flaw to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running Ethereal, which could be the root user.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Ethereal users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-analyzer/ethereal-0.10.13-r2"

4. References

Page updated December 14, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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