Critical Crash Vulnerability in Wireshark Package: CVE-2017-6468

wireshark Updated 02 Oct 2025

Summary

04/03/2017

Disclosed on

N/A

Severity

Yes i

Fix available

High

Severity

7.5

CVSS Score

ALPINE-CVE-2017-6468: In Wireshark 2.2.0 to 2.2.4 and 2.0.0 to 2.0.10, there is a NetScaler file parser crash, triggered by a malformed capture file. Affects wireshark versions < 2.2.5-r0. Fixed in 2.2.5-r0. How to fix ↓

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Background

Wireshark is a widely-used network protocol analyzer that allows users to capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network. It is known for its rich feature set, including deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, live capture and offline analysis, and a powerful display filter language. However, certain versions of Wireshark are vulnerable to a crash when processing malformed capture files, specifically due to issues in the NetScaler file parser.

Vulnerability Detail

The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-6468 affects Wireshark versions 2.2.0 to 2.2.4 and 2.0.0 to 2.0.10. It arises from a flaw in the NetScaler file parser, where a malformed capture file can trigger a crash. This vulnerability can lead to denial of service, as the application may become unresponsive when attempting to process such files. The issue was addressed by validating the relationship between pages and records in the wiretap/netscaler.c file.

How To Fix

Minimum fixed version

2.2.5-r0

This is the first release that contains the fix.

sudo apk add --upgrade wireshark

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Workaround

As a workaround, avoid opening untrusted or malformed capture files that could trigger this vulnerability. If you must analyze such files, consider using a different version of Wireshark that is not affected by this issue.

Conclusion

In summary, CVE-2017-6468 is a critical vulnerability in specific versions of Wireshark that can lead to application crashes when processing malformed capture files. Users are advised to update to the latest patched version to mitigate this risk.

See every vulnerability recorded for wireshark →