Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-3203 is a medium-severity Buffer Over-read (CWE-126) vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-3203 affects the RF4CE Profile protocol dissector in Wireshark versions 4.6.0 through 4.6.3 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.13. The vulnerability causes a crash in the dissector, enabling a denial of service condition. It is rated with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and is associated with CWE-126.
The attack requires local access and user interaction, with low complexity and no privileges. An attacker can exploit it by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted packet capture file containing malformed RF4CE Profile traffic using the affected Wireshark versions. Successful exploitation results in a crash of the Wireshark application, leading to high-impact denial of service on availability with no impact on confidentiality or integrity.
Wireshark's security advisory WNPA-SEC-2026-07 at https://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2026-07.html and the related GitLab issue tracker entry at https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues/21009 provide further details on the vulnerability. These resources cover the issue discovery and resolution in Wireshark's development process.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-8662
Vulnerability Data
RF4CE Profile protocol dissector crash 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 Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, bounds checking tests) directly finds buffer over-read flaws.
Engineering principles such as memory-safe design and bounds-checked abstractions structurally stop introduction of out-of-bounds reads.
Process isolation limits the blast radius of an over-read to the compromised domain.
Input validation enforces length and index constraints that prevent many externally triggered over-reads.
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.
Secure development practices directly prevent introduction of buffer over-read weaknesses.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover buffer over-read flaws via scanning or review.
Patching or replacing vulnerable software removes known instances of buffer over-read 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.
Security testing in development can detect buffer over-reads before release.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and bounds checking that can prevent buffer over-reads.
Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and bounds-checking rules.
Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and bounds-checking design choices.
Secure coding standards directly require bounds-checked buffer access, mitigating over-reads.