Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2021-4185 can make vulnerable Wireshark versions stop responding when they process malicious RTMPT traffic or a crafted capture file. The main business risk is analyst workstation disruption, delayed investigations, or monitoring interruption, not data theft or system takeover based on the provided sources.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation in SOC and forensic environments because the vulnerability can disrupt investigation tooling. It is high severity for availability, but the provided evidence does not indicate confidentiality impact, integrity impact, or confirmed active exploitation.
Technical view
The vulnerability is an infinite loop in Wireshark's RTMPT dissector affecting Wireshark 3.6.0 and 3.4.0 through the vulnerable 3.4.x range identified in the sources. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.5, with network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on analyst, SOC, engineering, or forensic systems using affected Wireshark builds to inspect live traffic or open packet captures. Internet-facing servers are not the typical exposure point unless Wireshark is used in an automated packet-processing workflow.
Exploitation context
The source bundle supports denial of service through packet injection or a crafted capture file. It does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. Treat exploitation as plausible where untrusted traffic or captures are analyzed, but do not assume observed in-the-wild exploitation from these sources.
Researcher notes
Focus review on RTMPT dissection paths and environments that process untrusted captures or live injected traffic. The provided CVSS vector indicates AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. Version evidence differs slightly across bundle fields, so confirm exact affected and fixed releases against the Wireshark advisory.
Mitigation direction
- Identify Wireshark installations at versions 3.6.0 and affected 3.4.x releases.
- Review the Wireshark advisory for fixed versions and upgrade guidance.
- Apply distribution security updates from Fedora, Debian LTS, Gentoo, or Oracle where relevant.
- Avoid opening untrusted capture files on vulnerable Wireshark builds.
- Use isolated analysis workstations for suspicious packet captures until upgraded.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installed Wireshark versions on analyst and packet-analysis systems.
- Confirm package manager security advisories have been applied where Wireshark is distro-managed.
- Check whether automated workflows process captures with vulnerable Wireshark components.
- Review SOC procedures for handling untrusted capture files.
- Verify patched systems can process normal RTMPT captures without application hangs.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2021-4185 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2021-17.htmlCVE reference
- https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues/17745CVE reference
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2021/CVE-2021-4185.jsonCVE reference
- FEDORA-2022-1daf93c51dCVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-30411cb3c4CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- [debian-lts-announce] 20220331 [SECURITY] [DLA 2967-1] wireshark security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.htmlCVE reference
- GLSA-202210-04CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/09/msg00049.htmlCVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.