Ethereal fails to properly handle malfored SNMP packets

Overview

Ethereal contains a vulnerability in the way it processes Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) packets.

Description

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) protocol enables network and system administrators to remotely monitor and configure devices on the network (devices such as switches and routers). Ethereal includes the ability to decode packets containing SNMP data. There is a vulnerability in the way the SNMP dissector decodes SNMP packets containing a malformed or missing community string. By sending a specially crafted SNMP packet or convincing a victim to read a malformed packet trace file, a remote, unauthenticated attacker could cause Ethereal to crash or potentially execute code of the attacker’s choice.

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Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker could cause Ethereal to crash or potentially execute code of the attacker’s choice.

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Solution

Upgrade

Upgrade to version 0.10.5 or later.

Note: Ethereal is considered BETA software at this time.

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Disable SNMP protocl dissector

If you are unable to upgrade to version 0.10.5 or later, you can disable the SNMP protocol dissector by performing the following actions in Ethereal:

1. Select Analyze->Enabled Protocols
2. Disable the SNMP protocol dissector from the list by unchecking its “Status” checkbox

However, it is strongly encouraged to upgrade to version 0.10.5 or later.

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Vendor Information

835846

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Ethereal __ Affected

Updated: September 07, 2004

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

Please refer to Ethereal Security Advisory enpa-sa-00015.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23835846 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://www.ethereal.com/appnotes/enpa-sa-00015.html&gt;
• <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1157.txt&gt;
• <http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/16632&gt;
• <http://secunia.com/advisories/12024/&gt;
• <http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/10672&gt;
• <http://www.securitytracker.com/alerts/2004/Jul/1010655.html&gt;
• <http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=127381&gt;
• <http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2004-378.html&gt;
• <http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2004-July/msg00013.html&gt;
• <http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2004-July/msg00014.html&gt;
• <http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200407-08.xml&gt;
• <http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/advisories/advisory.php?name=MDKSA-2004:067&gt;

Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was reported by the maintainers of Ethereal.

This document was written by Damon Morda.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2004-0635
Severity Metric:	8.09 Date Public: