Overview
CVE-2025-13945 describes a medium severity vulnerability affecting Wireshark versions 4.6.0 and 4.6.1. This vulnerability resides in the HTTP3 dissector and can lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition if Wireshark processes a specially crafted packet. This article provides a detailed analysis of the vulnerability, its potential impact, and recommended mitigation strategies.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from a flaw in how the HTTP3 dissector handles malformed or unexpected data. Specifically, a crafted packet exploiting this flaw can cause Wireshark to crash, rendering it unable to analyze network traffic. The exact nature of the flaw is within the dissection logic of HTTP3 packets and involves incorrect parsing of header fields or frame types.
The issue was reported and investigated by the Wireshark development team, leading to the identification of the root cause and the development of a fix.
CVSS Analysis
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) has assigned CVE-2025-13945 a CVSS score of 5.5 (MEDIUM). This score reflects the following characteristics:
- Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – The attack can be launched remotely over the network.
- Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – The attack is relatively easy to execute.
- Privileges Required: None (PR:N) – No special privileges are required to exploit the vulnerability.
- User Interaction: None (UI:N) – No user interaction is required to trigger the vulnerability.
- Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – The vulnerability affects the Wireshark application itself.
- Confidentiality Impact: None (C:N) – There is no impact to confidentiality.
- Integrity Impact: None (I:N) – There is no impact to integrity.
- Availability Impact: High (A:H) – The vulnerability can lead to a denial-of-service condition, rendering Wireshark unavailable.
Possible Impact
A successful exploitation of CVE-2025-13945 can have the following consequences:
- Denial of Service: Wireshark will crash when analyzing malicious HTTP3 traffic, preventing network administrators and security analysts from monitoring and troubleshooting network issues.
- Interrupted Network Analysis: Real-time network analysis and packet capture processes may be disrupted, leading to missed security events and delayed incident response.
While the vulnerability itself does not allow for data exfiltration or code execution, it can significantly hinder network monitoring and security efforts.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The recommended mitigation for CVE-2025-13945 is to upgrade Wireshark to version 4.6.2 or later. The Wireshark development team has addressed this vulnerability in these versions. Here are the steps you can take:
- Download the Latest Version: Visit the official Wireshark website and download the latest stable version of Wireshark: Wireshark Download.
- Install the Update: Follow the installation instructions provided on the Wireshark website.
- Verify the Installation: After the installation, verify that you are running Wireshark version 4.6.2 or later.
If upgrading is not immediately feasible, consider implementing network-level filtering to block or sanitize potentially malicious HTTP3 traffic, although this is a less reliable workaround.
