Quick answers
- Is CVE-2016-7983 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2016-7983 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2016-7983?
- Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.8, published 28 January 2017.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- tcpdump tcpdump < 4.9.0.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2016-7983?
- A patch was published on 2017-01-26: tcpdump 4.9.0 released fixing multiple vulnerabilities Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2016-7983 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2016-7983?
- Check whether you run Tcpdump. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in tcpdump versions prior to 4.9.0 within the BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol) parser. The flaw is located in the bootp_print() function in print-bootp.c and is triggered when the application processes malformed BOOTP packets. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted packets to a network segment where tcpdump is performing live capture, or by tricking a user into opening a malicious pcap file. Successful exploitation can result in a denial of service (application crash) or potentially arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the tcpdump process. The issue was addressed in version 4.9.0.
Affected products
- tcpdump tcpdump < 4.9.0
Timeline
- 2017-01-26: patched: tcpdump 4.9.0 released fixing multiple vulnerabilities
- 2017-01-27: advisory: NVD published CVE-2016-7983