CVE-2026-3201
Published: 25 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-3201 is a medium-severity Improperly Controlled Sequential Memory Allocation (CWE-1325) vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Malicious File (T1204.002); ranked at the 10.4th 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 are NIST 800-53 SC-6 (Resource Availability) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-3201 is a memory exhaustion vulnerability in the USB HID protocol dissector within Wireshark versions 4.6.0 through 4.6.3 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.13. Published on 2026-02-25T15:20:55.617, the issue enables denial of service and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.7 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). It is linked to CWE-1325 (Improperly Controlled Sequential Memory Allocation) and CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling).
The vulnerability can be exploited by an unprivileged local attacker who convinces a user to open a malicious packet capture file in an affected Wireshark instance. Exploitation requires local access vector, high attack complexity, and user interaction, such as loading the crafted file, but no special privileges. Successful exploitation leads to high-impact availability disruption through memory exhaustion, with no confidentiality or integrity effects.
Wireshark advisories provide mitigation guidance, including details in WNPA-SEC-2026-05 at https://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2026-05.html and the related GitLab issue at https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues/20972.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-8660
Vulnerability details
USB HID protocol dissector memory exhaustion in Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.3 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.13 allows denial of service
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vulnerability is triggered by opening a crafted capture file (T1204.002 Malicious File under User Execution) and directly enables application-level DoS via memory exhaustion (T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation).
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly limits effects of uncontrolled resource allocation (CWE-770) that the malicious USB HID capture triggers in Wireshark.
Requires prompt application of vendor patches that close the memory-exhaustion flaw in the USB HID dissector.
Enforces validation of untrusted capture-file input before the dissector performs unbounded sequential allocations.