Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-8250

Memory Safety in Wireshark 4.0.0 – 4.0.17

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
29 August 2024
Modified
03 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0032 24th percentile
Risk Priority 56 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-8250 is a high-severity Expired Pointer Dereference (CWE-825) vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 24th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

NTLMSSP dissector crash in Wireshark 4.2.0 to 4.0.6 and 4.0.0 to 4.0.16 allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-5601Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-0667Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-2854Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-2858Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-2856Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-2855Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-2857Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-0666Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2023-0668Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2024-4853Same product: Wireshark Wireshark

Affected Assets

wireshark
wireshark
4.0.0 — 4.0.17 · 4.2.0 — 4.2.7

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing, static analysis, and dynamic memory checkers) directly finds expired-pointer dereferences before deployment.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

Secure engineering principles applied during design and implementation can mandate memory-safe allocation, ownership, and deallocation patterns that structurally avoid use of expired pointers.

Process isolation confines the effects of a use-after-free within a single address space, reducing cross-process impact.

Input validation can structurally reject or sanitize data that would otherwise trigger an out-of-bounds write.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the blast radius when an expired pointer is dereferenced, even though they do not stop the coding flaw itself.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly prevent coding errors such as use-after-free while one CWE contributes only modestly to the full control.

ID.AM-08 partial match
prevents

Lifecycle management includes secure development and maintenance phases that reduce memory-safety defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free flaws via scanning or analysis.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching and replacement can eliminate known instances of expired-pointer bugs.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect use-after-free issues, but removing this weakness alone does not fulfill the testing control.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle practices can include pointer lifetime and memory-management rules that reduce expired-pointer dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements may mandate safe memory handling, but eliminating this single weakness does not satisfy the broader requirement.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles can prescribe memory-safety patterns, yet fixing only this weakness does not achieve the control.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly address pointer lifetime and deallocation discipline, substantially mitigating expired-pointer dereference.

prevents

Change-management processes can require re-validation of memory safety after modifications, indirectly reducing the weakness.

References