Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Wireshark 3.6.0 can be forced into a denial-of-service condition when processing Kafka protocol traffic or a malicious capture file. The business impact is disruption to packet-analysis workstations or monitoring workflows, not data theft or system takeover based on the supplied sources.
Executive priority
Treat as a prompt availability fix for security operations and network teams. It is not a broad enterprise compromise issue, but a crash or hang during analysis can disrupt incident response and monitoring when analysts depend on Wireshark.
Technical view
The flaw is a large loop in Wireshark's Kafka dissector affecting version 3.6.0. CVSS 3.1 is 7.5 with network attack vector, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact. Sources describe triggering by packet injection or a crafted capture file.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to environments running Wireshark 3.6.0, including analyst workstations and systems processing packet captures. Risk is higher where untrusted capture files are opened or Kafka traffic is inspected from potentially hostile networks.
Exploitation context
The CVE record describes denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file. The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or other evidence of active exploitation, so active exploitation should not be assumed.
Researcher notes
No CWE is listed in the supplied data. The vulnerability is scoped to the Kafka dissector in Wireshark 3.6.0. The CVSS vector indicates availability-only impact, with no confidentiality or integrity impact asserted by the sources.
Mitigation direction
- Identify and remove Wireshark 3.6.0 from analyst and monitoring systems.
- Update Wireshark using Wireshark Foundation or operating-system vendor guidance.
- Avoid opening untrusted capture files until affected systems are updated.
- Limit live analysis of untrusted Kafka traffic on vulnerable Wireshark installations.
- Track applicable Fedora, Gentoo, and Debian advisories for packaged fixes.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installed Wireshark versions and flag any 3.6.0 deployments.
- Confirm package manager records show a vendor-supported fixed build.
- Review SOC workflows for untrusted capture file handling.
- Check whether Kafka dissector use is common in monitored environments.
- Verify vulnerable systems no longer process live or stored untrusted captures.
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-2021-4190 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-2021-22.htmlCVE reference
- https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues/17811CVE reference
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2021/CVE-2021-4190.jsonCVE reference
- FEDORA-2022-1daf93c51dCVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-30411cb3c4CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- 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.