Denial of service via excessive dissector loops
Published Jan 24, 2023 · Updated Nov 3, 2025
Excessive iteration in Wireshark 3.6.0 through 3.6.10 and 4.0.0 through 4.0.2 allows attackers to exhaust CPU via malformed packet data. The BPv6, NCP, and RTPS dissectors continue processing malformed protocol structures instead of terminating, causing excessive loops and, for RTPS, memory exhaustion. Exploitation requires packet injection onto a monitored link or user interaction to open a crafted capture file, resulting in a hang or crash rather than data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
Excessive iteration in Wireshark 3.6.0 through 3.6.10 and 4.0.0 through 4.0.2 allows attackers to exhaust CPU via malformed packet data. The BPv6, NCP, and RTPS dissectors continue processing malformed protocol structures instead of terminating, causing excessive loops and, for RTPS, memory exhaustion. Exploitation requires packet injection onto a monitored link or user interaction to open a crafted capture file, resulting in a hang or crash rather than data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-0411
- Published
- Jan 24, 2023
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Vendor
- Wireshark Foundation
- Product
- Wireshark
- Classifications
- CWE-834, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 24, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 3, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=>=3.6.0, <3.6.11
- Affected versionversion=>=4.0.0, <4.0.3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- RTPS infinite-loop captureproof of concept · demonstrated
- BPv6-linked CPU-timeout fuzz captureproof of concept · demonstrated
- NCP excessive-loop fuzz captureproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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