Description

ESS protocol dissector crash in 4.6.0 to 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.18 allows denial of service

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "5.3",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T23:16:20.600Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T23:16:20.600Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A denial of service vulnerability exists within the ESS protocol dissector affecting versions 4.6.0 to 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.18. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of malformed or maliciously crafted network traffic processed by the protocol dissector component. When an attacker transmits specially constructed packets targeting the vulnerable protocol parser, it triggers a parsing exception or fatal software crash, leading to an application-level denial of service. This disrupts ongoing network analysis operations, rendering the affected software unavailable. The risk implication is significant for environments relying on continuous packet inspection and real-time traffic monitoring, as an unauthenticated remote attacker can repeatedly crash the parsing engine over the network without requiring privileged access or prior system interaction. Exploitation relies purely on network accessibility to the packet processing interface where the ESS protocol dissector is active.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the ESS protocol dissector component responsible for parsing and interpreting network traffic conforming to the ESS protocol. The root cause stems from insufficient bounds checking, invalid pointer dereferences, or improper state validation when processing malformed protocol fields within incoming network payloads. When the vulnerable component attempts to dissect a maliciously crafted packet, the parser encounters unexpected data structures or out-of-bounds offsets that it fails to handle gracefully.\nThe attack flow begins when an unauthenticated remote attacker transmits specially crafted network packets containing malicious payloads designed to trigger the parsing flaw. These packets are directed toward a network interface or processing pipeline where the vulnerable software is actively capturing and analyzing traffic. Upon ingestion, the parsing engine invokes the ESS protocol dissector to decode the packet structure. As the dissector processes the malformed fields, it triggers a fatal runtime exception, assertion failure, or segmentation fault due to the underlying logic error in the parsing routine.\nBecause protocol dissectors typically operate within the main event loop or core processing thread of the analysis software, an unhandled exception or crash in this component terminates the application entirely, resulting in a denial of service. The affected versions include 4.6.0 through 4.6.7 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.18. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring any authentication, administrative privileges, or user interaction, provided the targeted system is actively processing traffic containing the malicious protocol payloads."
}