Executive brief
tcpdump is a widely used command-line tool for monitoring and analyzing network traffic. A vulnerability was discovered that allows an attacker to send specially crafted network packets to a system running tcpdump, potentially causing the tool to crash or allowing the attacker to take control of the system. This could lead to a disruption of network monitoring services or unauthorized access to sensitive data being captured from the network.
Technical details
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in tcpdump versions prior to 4.9.0 within the print-ether.c:ether_print() function. The flaw is triggered by a bug in multiple protocol parsers, including Geneve, GRE, NSH, OTV, VXLAN, and VXLAN GPE. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted packets to a network interface being monitored by tcpdump in live capture mode, or by tricking a user into opening a malicious pcap file. Successful exploitation can result in a denial of service (application crash) or the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the tcpdump process. The issue was addressed in the upstream release of tcpdump 4.9.0.
Affected products
- tcpdump tcpdump before 4.9.0
Timeline
- 2017-01-26: disclosed: Debian bug report and upstream release announcement
- 2017-01-27: advisory: NVD published date
- 2017-01-29: patched: Debian security update (DSA-3775-1) released