Name: Security problems in Ethereal 0.9.16

Docid: enpa-sa-00012

Date: December 12, 2003

Versions affected: 0.9.1 up to and including 0.9.16

Severity: High

Description:

Serious issues have been discovered in the following protocol dissectors:

• Selecting "Match->Selected" or "Prepare->Selected" for a malformed SMB packet could cause a segmentation fault.
• It is possible for the Q.931 dissector to dereference a null pointer when reading a malformed packet.

Impact:

Both vulnerabilities will make the Ethereal application crash. The Q.931 vulnerability also affects Tethereal. It is not known if either vulnerability can be used to make Ethereal or Tethereal run arbitrary code.

Resolution:

Upgrade to 0.10.0.

If you are running a version prior to 0.10.0 and you cannot upgrade, you can disable the SMB and Q.931 protocol dissectors by selecting Edit->Protocols... and deselecting them from the list.