CVE-2026-96415: Wireshark Catapult DCT2000 dissector buffer overflow

CVE-2026-96415 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2026-09-29

Wireshark, a network traffic analysis tool, contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in its Catapult DCT2000 protocol dissector that can be triggered by opening a malformed capture file. An attacker can craft a specially formatted DCT2000 capture file that writes or reads beyond a 200-byte buffer, potentially causing a crash or exposing sensitive memory. This requires a user to open the malicious file in Wireshark or process it with tshark.

Technologies: Wireshark Foundation Wireshark. Vendors: Wireshark Foundation.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-96415 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-96415 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-96415?
Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.5, published 29 September 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?
Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 4.4.0 to 4.4.18, 4.6.0 to 4.6.8.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-96415?
A patch was published on 2026-09-29: Fixed in versions 4.6.9 and 4.4.19 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-96415 attacked?
It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-96415?
Check whether you run Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 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

The vulnerability exists in the NR-UP branch of the Catapult DCT2000 dissector where an unclamped length derived from attacker-controlled comment text is used in a padding loop that writes past a 200-byte static buffer. The decode loop properly bounds writes to the buffer (idx ≤ 196), but the subsequent alignment padding loop uses the unclamped length value, permitting 1–3 bytes of null writes up to ~65535 bytes past the array. The same unclamped length is used to create a tvb (buffer descriptor) that exposes adjacent static memory on read operations. Exploitation requires opening a malformed DCT2000 capture file with no user interaction beyond file opening.

Affected products

  • Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 4.4.0 to 4.4.18, 4.6.0 to 4.6.8

Timeline

  • 2026-09-23: disclosed
  • 2026-09-29: patched: Fixed in versions 4.6.9 and 4.4.19

References

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