CVE-2017-5341 Tcpdump CVE debrief

Who should care

Security teams, network operations teams, incident responders, and package maintainers responsible for systems running tcpdump 4.8.1 or earlier should care most. Environments that inspect untrusted network traffic or packet captures, and organizations that rely on distro-packaged tcpdump builds, should prioritize review.

Technical summary

The OTV parser in tcpdump has a buffer overflow in print-otv.c:otv_print(). The supplied NVD data classifies the flaw as CWE-119 and assigns CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating that malformed input processed by tcpdump can have severe consequences. The NVD CPE mapping marks tcpdump through version 4.8.1 as vulnerable, while the human-readable description states the issue is fixed in 4.9.0 and later.

Defensive priority

Immediate. This is a critical memory-safety issue with no privileges or user interaction required in the CVSS vector, so older tcpdump deployments should be remediated as soon as possible.

Recommended defensive actions

• Upgrade tcpdump to 4.9.0 or later, or install a vendor package that includes the fix.
• Inventory systems, appliances, and workflows that invoke tcpdump so older copies are not missed.
• If upgrading is delayed, limit exposure to untrusted traffic and packet-capture inputs as much as possible.
• Verify your platform’s security guidance and package updates, including the Debian, Red Hat, and Gentoo advisories listed in the source corpus.
• Investigate unexpected tcpdump crashes or abnormal termination in packet-analysis jobs and treat them as a security signal.

Evidence notes

Evidence is grounded in the supplied NVD record and linked advisories. The NVD entry states the vulnerability type, CVSS vector, affected CPE range, and CWE-119 classification. The record references Debian, Red Hat, and Gentoo advisories, which supports that fixed packages were issued by downstream distributors. No KEV entry is present in the supplied enrichment.

Official resources