Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-6519

DoS in Wireshark 4.4.0 – 4.4.14

Public PoCDoS
Published
30 April 2026
Modified
01 May 2026
Patch / advisory
View 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 0.0017 7th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-6519 is a medium-severity Infinite Loop (CWE-835) vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Malicious File (T1204.002); ranked at the 7th 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 RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — 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-2026-6519 is an infinite loop vulnerability (CWE-835) in the MBIM protocol dissector within Wireshark versions 4.6.0 through 4.6.4 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.14. This flaw can trigger a denial of service condition when processing malformed packets. The vulnerability carries 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), indicating medium severity with high availability impact but no confidentiality or integrity effects.

Exploitation requires local access to the target system and user interaction, such as opening a specially crafted packet capture file in Wireshark. An attacker with no privileges needed can convince a user to load the malicious file, causing Wireshark to enter an infinite loop and crash or become unresponsive, disrupting network analysis workflows.

Wireshark's security advisory WNPA-SEC-2026-41 and the associated GitLab work item (21184) provide details on the issue. Security practitioners should consult these references for patch information and upgrade to unaffected versions.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

MBIM protocol dissector infinite loop in Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.4 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.14 allows denial of service

CWE(s)
CWE-835

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1204.002 Malicious File Execution
An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

The vulnerability is triggered by a user opening a specially crafted packet capture file in Wireshark, directly mapping to T1204.002 Malicious File for user execution. It enables denial of service through an infinite loop in the application, mapping to T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation via malformed input processing.

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

Likely ATT&CK TechniquesAI

Techniques this vulnerability likely enables, inferred from its description, weakness type, and attributed-actor tradecraft. Confidence is per-technique.

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impactconfidence: HIGH
Infinite loop in Wireshark dissector directly enables application DoS via crafted input file.
attack.mitre.org →
inferred from description + CWE · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-7375Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6520Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6521Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6531Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-15163Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6528Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6534Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6522Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-6536Same product: Wireshark Wireshark
CVE-2026-0960Same product: Wireshark Wireshark

Affected Assets

wireshark
wireshark
4.4.0 — 4.4.14 · 4.6.0 — 4.6.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • RA-5 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning
  • SI-5 Security Alerts, Advisories, and Directives
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match
prevent

SI-2 requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws, directly mitigating CVE-2026-6519 by patching the infinite loop in Wireshark's MBIM protocol dissector.

RA-5 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning good match
detect

RA-5 mandates vulnerability scanning that would identify vulnerable Wireshark versions (4.6.0-4.6.4 and 4.4.0-4.4.14) affected by the DoS flaw.

SI-5 Security Alerts, Advisories, and Directives partial match
detect

SI-5 ensures receipt of security advisories like Wireshark's WNPA-SEC-2026-41, enabling proactive awareness and patching of CVE-2026-6519.

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 SDLC practices (reviews, testing, static analysis) directly prevent introduction of infinite-loop defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Static analysis and vuln scanning during asset assessment can detect unreachable loop exits.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can uncover infinite-loop conditions before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates practices that can detect and prevent infinite-loop defects.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify loop-termination rules, indirectly reducing the weakness.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address loop termination and prevent infinite loops.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles none match
none

Secure architecture principles encourage designs that avoid unreachable exit conditions.

A.8.32 Change management none match
none

Change management can require review of loop logic when code is modified.

References