CVE-2018-16301: tcpdump Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2018-16301 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Integer Overflow or Wraparound vulnerability in tcpdump. EPSS estimates a 0.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 48.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 03-10-2019
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 08-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

The command-line argument parser in tcpdump before 4.99.0 has a buffer overflow in tcpdump.c:read_infile(). To trigger this vulnerability the attacker needs to create a 4GB file on the local filesystem and to specify the file name as the value of the -F command-line argument of tcpdump.

• CWE-190Integer Overflow or WraparoundThe product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This occurs when an integer value is incremented to a value that is too large to store in the associated representation. When this occurs, the value may become a very small or negative number.
• CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteThe product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
• CWE-120Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow')The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer.