Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-15169

Memory Safety in Wireshark 4.4.0 – 4.4.17

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
08 July 2026
Modified
09 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0022 13th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-15169 is a medium-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 13th 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 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and SC-7 (Boundary Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

UMTS FP protocol dissector crash in Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.6 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.16 allows denial of service

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Why these techniques?

The CVE describes a crash in the UMTS FP protocol dissector of Wireshark, directly enabling an application-layer denial of service via crafted network traffic (T1499.004).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-6530Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-15165Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6529Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-7378Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-15170Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-5653Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6521Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-5401Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-5406Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-7376Same product: Wireshark Wireshark

Affected Assets

wireshark
wireshark
4.4.0 — 4.4.17 · 4.6.0 — 4.6.7

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
  • SC-7 Boundary Protection
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-4 System Monitoring
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Requires timely installation of vendor-supplied patches that eliminate the heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) in the UMTS FP dissector.

prevent

Boundary-protection devices can be configured to drop or rate-limit malformed UMTS FP traffic before it reaches the vulnerable Wireshark instance.

detect

Continuous monitoring of system and application behavior can detect anomalous process termination or excessive resource consumption caused by the crash.

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 full match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.

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.

detects

Security testing in development and acceptance can detect heap overflows before release.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates practices that reduce the likelihood of introducing heap overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify bounds-checking and safe memory APIs that mitigate heap overflows.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safety and input-validation controls that address heap overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prescribe techniques (safe functions, bounds checks) that prevent heap-based buffer overflows.

none

Change management ensures controlled deployment of fixes for discovered heap-overflow vulnerabilities.

References