Quick answers
- Is CVE-2017-5203 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2017-5203 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2017-5203?
- Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.8, published 28 January 2017.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- tcpdump tcpdump before 4.9.0.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2017-5203?
- A patch was published on 2017-01-29: Debian security update released Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2017-5203 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2017-5203?
- Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. 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's BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol) parser, specifically within the bootp_print() function in print-bootp.c. The flaw is triggered when tcpdump processes specially crafted BOOTP packets, either during live capture or when reading a malicious pcap file. Because the parser fails to properly validate the bounds of the input data, a remote attacker can cause a heap-based buffer overflow. This can result in a denial of service (application crash) or potentially the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running tcpdump. The vulnerability is addressed in version 4.9.0.
Affected products
- tcpdump tcpdump before 4.9.0
Timeline
- 2017-01-26: disclosed: Initial disclosure in Debian bug tracking system
- 2017-01-27: advisory: NVD publication date
- 2017-01-29: patched: Debian security update released