Denial of service via C12.22 length-field overflow
Published Aug 19, 2026 · Updated Aug 20, 2026
Denial of service in the C12.22 dissector in Wireshark 4.6.0 through 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.17 allows attackers to crash it. In canonify_unencrypted_header(), the dissector rebuilds BER length fields with a fixed four-byte bound instead of the remaining buffer space, so a malformed header can overrun the stack while canonicalizing the unencrypted header. Reachability includes hostile traffic on a monitored network and malicious capture files, and the published impact is limited to process termination.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the C12.22 dissector in Wireshark 4.6.0 through 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.17 allows attackers to crash it. In canonify_unencrypted_header(), the dissector rebuilds BER length fields with a fixed four-byte bound instead of the remaining buffer space, so a malformed header can overrun the stack while canonicalizing the unencrypted header. Reachability includes hostile traffic on a monitored network and malicious capture files, and the published impact is limited to process termination.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-76879
- Published
- Aug 19, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 20, 2026
- Vendor
- Wireshark Foundation
- Product
- Wireshark
- Classifications
- CWE-121, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 19, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 20, 2026Record 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=4.4.0 <4.4.18
- Affected versionversion=4.6.0 <4.6.8
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
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo