VulnerabilityPublished 21 Feb 2024Updated 1 Aug 2024

CVE-2024-24478: Wireshark · Integer Overflow to Buffer Overflow

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 61% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Affects: Wireshark before 4.2.0

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

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

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
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: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 21 Feb 2024
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

AI-suggested

Given the vendor's dispute and absence of patches, organizations should first verify their Wireshark version and monitor official Wireshark communications for updates or clarifications. Until confirmed, avoid analyzing untrusted or suspicious BGP traffic with Wireshark or isolate such analysis in controlled environments. Employ network segmentation and filtering to limit exposure to potentially malicious BGP packets. Consider using alternative tools or updated versions of Wireshark once a definitive fix or confirmation is available. Additionally, implement robust monitoring to detect unexpected Wireshark crashes and automate restarts or alerts to minimize operational impact. Security teams should maintain awareness of this issue but balance response efforts with the current uncertainty surrounding the vulnerability's validity.

Description

An issue in Wireshark before 4.2.0 allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via the packet-bgp.c, dissect_bgp_open(tvbuff_t*tvb, proto_tree*tree, packet_info*pinfo), optlen components. NOTE: this is disputed by the vendor because neither release 4.2.0 nor any other release was affected.

Impact

If exploitable, this vulnerability could allow remote attackers to crash Wireshark instances processing malicious BGP packets, causing denial of service. This can disrupt network traffic analysis, incident response, and forensic investigations relying on Wireshark, potentially delaying detection and mitigation of other network threats. Organizations that use Wireshark in automated monitoring or in environments where untrusted network traffic is analyzed could face operational interruptions. However, since Wireshark is primarily a diagnostic tool rather than a critical network service, the direct impact on network infrastructure is limited. The lack of confirmed exploits and vendor dispute reduces the immediate risk, but the possibility of crashes could still affect security teams and network administrators worldwide.

Summary

CVE-2024-24478 describes a potential vulnerability in Wireshark's BGP protocol dissector, specifically in the dissect_bgp_open function located in packet-bgp.c. The issue arises from improper handling of the optlen component, which can lead to a denial of service (DoS) condition when Wireshark processes a maliciously crafted BGP OPEN packet. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-680 (Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size), indicating that the flaw likely involves a buffer or memory mismanagement leading to a crash. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) indicates that the attack can be performed remotely over the network with low attack complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction, resulting in a complete loss of availability of the affected application. Despite this, the vendor disputes the vulnerability's validity, asserting that no released versions, including 4.2.0, are affected. No official patches or fixes have been issued, and no known exploits have been observed in the wild. This discrepancy suggests that the vulnerability report may be based on incomplete or inaccurate analysis, but the potential impact of a DoS in a widely used network protocol analyzer warrants caution.

CWE-680Integer Overflow to Buffer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
Compound weakness
The product performs a calculation to determine how much memory to allocate, but an integer overflow can occur that causes less memory to be allocated than expected, leading to a buffer overflow.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.4.3 (opens in a new tab)
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables (opens in a new tab)
Overflow Buffers (opens in a new tab)
Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow (opens in a new tab)
Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links (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

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 Feb 2026, 09:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-680

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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