Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-5656 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-5656 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-5656?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7, published 1 May 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream 10.2; Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS 10.0.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-5656?
- A patch was published on 2026-05-26: Red Hat released security updates for RHEL 10 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-5656 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in a network appliance.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-5656?
- Check whether you run Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream or Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS at an affected version. 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 path traversal vulnerability, specifically a 'Zip-Slip' flaw, exists in the WiresharkZipHelper::unzip() function within the Configuration Profile import feature. The application fails to validate that file paths extracted from a ZIP archive remain within the intended target directory, allowing an attacker to use '../' sequences to write files to arbitrary locations. On POSIX-compliant systems, an attacker can exploit this by planting a malicious Lua script in the local plugins directory (~/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins/), which Wireshark automatically executes upon its next startup. Exploitation requires a user to manually import a malformed ZIP file. The issue is resolved in versions 4.6.5 and 4.4.15.
Affected products
- Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.4, 4.4.0 to 4.4.14
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) 10.2
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v. 10.0) 10.0
Timeline
- 2026-04-29: advisory: Wireshark published vendor advisory wnpa-sec-2026-21
- 2026-04-30: disclosed: Vulnerability reported to GitLab/Wireshark Foundation
- 2026-05-01: advisory: CVE-2026-5656 published to NVD
- 2026-05-26: patched: Red Hat released security updates for RHEL 10
References
- https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues/21115
- https://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2026-21.html
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20600
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:26182
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-5656
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2464276
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-5656.json