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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2017-6473 Wireshark CVE debrief

CVE-2017-6473 is a high-severity Wireshark issue in the K12 file parser. A malformed capture file can crash affected releases, and the vendor addressed the problem by validating length and offset relationships in wiretap/k12.c.

Vendor
Wireshark
Product
Unknown
CVSS
HIGH 7.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-03-04
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-03-04
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Security teams and administrators running Wireshark 2.2.0-2.2.4 or 2.0.0-2.0.10, especially where analysts open untrusted capture files or where Wireshark is bundled into distro packages such as Debian 8.0.

Technical summary

NVD classifies the weakness as CWE-20 (improper input validation). The affected parser path is wiretap/k12.c, where malformed capture input could trigger a crash. NVD lists vulnerable Wireshark ranges of 2.0.0-2.0.10 and 2.2.0-2.2.4, with a CVSS 3.0 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Defensive priority

High. The issue is a parser crash in a common packet-analysis tool, and the published CVSS score indicates a severe availability impact.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade Wireshark to a release outside the affected ranges (newer than 2.0.10 and 2.2.4).
  • Apply the vendor or distribution security update that includes the wiretap/k12.c validation fix.
  • Treat capture files from untrusted sources as untrusted inputs and isolate analysis workflows where possible.
  • Verify whether packaged deployments, including Debian 8.0, have received the corresponding security update.
  • Monitor for unexpected Wireshark crashes when opening K12-format captures and remove any exposed affected builds from service.

Evidence notes

The supplied corpus includes the NVD record, the Wireshark vendor advisory, the Wireshark bug tracker entry (13431), and the linked patch commit. These sources agree that the issue is a malformed-capture-file parser crash fixed by validating length/offset relationships. NVD also provides the affected version ranges and CWE-20 classification.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2017-6473 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-6473

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2017-6473 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-6473

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.