VulnerabilityPublished 24 Aug 2023Updated 3 Nov 2025

CVE-2023-4512: Wireshark · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects WiresharkSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 43% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 24 Aug 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Debiandebian/wireshark`pkg:deb/debian/wireshark`Other threats	Affected =4.0.0	Fixed in–
Fedorafedora/wireshark`pkg:rpm/fedora/wireshark`Other threats	Affected =4.0.0	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Update Wireshark to the latest version as soon as a patch addressing CVE-2023-4512 is released by the Wireshark Foundation.
Until a patch is available, avoid opening capture files from untrusted or unknown sources to reduce the risk of triggering the vulnerability.
Implement strict network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of Wireshark instances to potentially malicious packet injections.
Educate users and security analysts about the risks of opening suspicious capture files and encourage verification of file provenance.
Use alternative network analysis tools or offline analysis methods when handling untrusted data.
Monitor Wireshark usage logs and system stability to detect abnormal crashes that may indicate exploitation attempts.
Employ endpoint protection solutions that can detect and block attempts to exploit application crashes or resource exhaustion.
Regularly review and update incident response procedures to include scenarios involving denial of service against security monitoring tools.

Description

CBOR dissector crash in Wireshark 4.0.0 to 4.0.6 allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2023-4512 is operational disruption of network monitoring and analysis activities. Wireshark is widely used by IT security teams, network administrators, and incident responders to capture and analyze network traffic. A successful exploitation causing Wireshark to crash can delay threat detection, forensic investigations, and troubleshooting efforts. This can indirectly affect confidentiality and integrity by impairing timely response to other security incidents. Organizations relying on Wireshark in critical infrastructure sectors (e.g., energy, finance, telecommunications) may experience temporary loss of visibility into network traffic, increasing risk exposure. Since exploitation requires user interaction and local access, remote attackers have limited ability to leverage this vulnerability directly. However, crafted capture files distributed via email or shared repositories could be a vector. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the potential for future attacks. Overall, the impact is medium severity, mainly affecting availability and operational continuity rather than leading to data breaches or remote code execution.

CWE-674Uncontrolled Recursion (opens in a new tab)
Class weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Implementation
Ensure that an end condition will be reached under all logic conditions. The end condition may include checking against the depth of recursion and exiting with an error if the recursion goes too deep. The complexity of the end condition contributes to the effectiveness of this action.
Implementation
Increase the stack size.
Attack patterns
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Nov 2025, 22:18 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-674

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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