Crash via wrapped reassembly length accumulation
Published Aug 19, 2026 · Updated Aug 20, 2026
Heap-based buffer overflow in Wireshark 4.6.0 through 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.17 allows attackers to crash the process via crafted input. In epan/reassemble.c, fragment_defragment_and_free() adds fragment lengths into a 32-bit size, allocates g_malloc(size) after wraparound, and then copies each fragment at full fd_i->len into the undersized heap buffer. Reachability is limited to block-sequence reassembly paths; the public report proves SMTP, DICOM, and WebSocket cases and requires more than 4 GiB of genuine fragment data, so the published impact is a bounded denial of service rather than demonstrated code execution.
Summary
What happened
Heap-based buffer overflow in Wireshark 4.6.0 through 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.17 allows attackers to crash the process via crafted input. In epan/reassemble.c, fragment_defragment_and_free() adds fragment lengths into a 32-bit size, allocates g_malloc(size) after wraparound, and then copies each fragment at full fd_i->len into the undersized heap buffer. Reachability is limited to block-sequence reassembly paths; the public report proves SMTP, DICOM, and WebSocket cases and requires more than 4 GiB of genuine fragment data, so the published impact is a bounded denial of service rather than demonstrated code execution.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-76887
- Published
- Aug 19, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 20, 2026
- Vendor
- Wireshark Foundation
- Product
- Wireshark
- Classifications
- CWE-122, 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
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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
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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