Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-96420 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-96420 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-96420?
- Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 4.7, published 29 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.8, 4.4.0 to 4.4.18.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-96420?
- A patch was published on 2026-09-23: Fixed in 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-2026-96420 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-96420?
- 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 Toshiba file parser in Wireshark reads untrusted capture files into a fixed-size stack buffer and unconditionally parses packet length metadata from a fixed offset (byte 64) without validating that the buffer contains a complete line. A short "OFFSET" line leaves uninitialized stack memory beyond the actual input, which is then interpreted as packet length data, causing out-of-bounds stack reads. Exploitation requires user interaction (opening a malicious .pcap file) and can trigger undefined behavior or process crash.
Affected products
- Wireshark Foundation Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.8, 4.4.0 to 4.4.18
Timeline
- 2026-09-23: disclosed
- 2026-09-23: patched: Fixed in 4.6.9 and 4.4.19