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NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

CVE-2003-0432: Ethereal 0.9.12 and earlier does not handle certain strings properly, with unknown consequences, in the (1) BGP, (2) WTP, (3) DNS, (4)…

CriticalCVSS 10.0 · v2.0—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Plan (action score 41/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 2.2% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 83.2% of all records.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: ethereal (Debian:3.0) 0.9.4-1woody5.

Add it to your regular patch cycle. Upgrade to ethereal (Debian:3.0) 0.9.4-1woody5 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Ethereal 0.9.12 and earlier does not handle certain strings properly, with unknown consequences, in the (1) BGP, (2) WTP, (3) DNS, (4) 802.11, (5) ISAKMP, (6) WSP, (7) CLNP, (8) ISIS, and (9) RMI dissectors.

Published
Jul 24, 2003
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
2.2% · 83th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

41

Plan

Add it to your regular patch cycle.

CVSS
40 / 40 · 10.0 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 2.2%

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  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

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When you'll hear from us

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  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
ethereal groupethereal

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • ethereal group etherealup to 0.9.12 inclusive

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:3.0etherealbefore 0.9.4-1woody50.9.4-1woody5

Same product

ethereal group: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2006-3632Buffer overflow in Wireshark (aka Ethereal) 0.8.16 to 0.99.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute…
    42Plan
  • CVE-2005-3184Buffer overflow vulnerability in the unicode_to_bytes in the Service Location Protocol (srvloc) dissector (packet-srvloc.c) in Ethereal…
    42Plan
  • CVE-2004-0507Buffer overflow in the MMSE dissector for Ethereal 0.10.1 to 0.10.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly…
    42Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2003-0430Jul 24, 2003 · The SPNEGO dissector in Ethereal 0.9.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via an invalid ASN.1 value.
    21Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2003-0431Jul 24, 2003 · The tvb_get_nstringz0 function in Ethereal 0.9.12 and earlier does not properly handle a zero-length buffer size, with unknown consequences.
    41Plan
  • Later →CVE-2003-0925Dec 1, 2003 · Buffer overflow in Ethereal 0.9.15 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via…
    32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
debian:ethereal0.9.4-1woody5 · Debian:3.0Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
C · data can be read
Integrity
C · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
C · the service can be disrupted
Attack complexity
Low
Confidentiality impact
C
Integrity impact
C
Availability impact
C

Weakness class (CWE)

—

CVSS vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

References

Show all references (6 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records