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Wireshark disclosed and fixed memory-safety flaws in its UMTS FP dissector that could be triggered by malformed network traffic or crafted packet capture files opened in Wireshark, tshark, or sharkd. One issue, tracked as CVE-2026-15169 and published as wnpa-sec-2026-59, stems from dissect_e_dch_t2_or_common_channel_info() writing past a static subframes[16] array in the UMTS FP E-DCH Type-2 parser, enabling memory corruption and at minimum a reliable denial of service. Wireshark said the bug affects versions 4.6.0 through 4.6.6 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.16, and was fixed in 4.6.7 and 4.4.17.
A related flaw in the same function was later assigned CVE-2026-76889 after researchers showed that a packet-controlled continuation flag could keep MAC-is descriptor parsing running beyond 16 entries, causing fixed-array out-of-bounds writes to mac_is_lchid[pdu_no][16] and mac_is_length[pdu_no][16]. The bugs were reproduced with sanitizers against development and pre-release builds, and Wireshark closed the reports after merging fixes including !25692 for UMTS-FP limits checking and !25780 for the MAC-is descriptor handling issue. The disclosures indicate the vulnerabilities could be exploited through injected malformed packets or malicious trace files, although no public exploits were reported at disclosure time.
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6 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
The reporter sent a confidential reproducer archive for a separate UMTS FP memory-safety issue to security@wireshark.org and requested credit under the name Jaime Cavero. The issue involved fixed-array out-of-bounds writes in MAC-is SDU descriptor parsing.
On July 8, 2026, Wireshark published advisory wnpa-sec-2026-59 for a UMTS FP protocol dissector crash tracked as CVE-2026-15169. The advisory said affected versions were 4.6.0 through 4.6.6 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.16, and that fixes were available in 4.6.7 and 4.4.17.
Gerald Combs stated that the later UMTS FP MAC-is descriptor count issue was assigned CVE-2026-76889. The flaw affected the dissector function dissect_e_dch_t2_or_common_channel_info() and could be reproduced with a synthetic capture under UBSan.
Wireshark closed the later UMTS FP issue after merge request !25780, titled "UMTS-FP: More bounds checking against subframes[]," was merged. This addressed fixed-array out-of-bounds writes caused by excessive MAC-is SDU descriptors.
Wireshark merged merge request !25692, titled "UMTS-FP: Check some limits (fp channels and number of mac pdus)," to address the UMTS FP limits-checking flaw reported in issue 21398. The issue was later assigned CVE-2026-15169.
A security issue in Wireshark's UMTS FP E-DCH Type-2 dissector was found by Anthropic using Claude and manually validated and reported by Ada Logics under security issue ANT-2026-JVHH18M7. The report states disclosure timing was deferred to Wireshark's security team under a coordinated disclosure process.
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Wireshark disclosed and fixed a vulnerability in its UMTS RRC protocol dissector that could corrupt heap memory and crash the application during packet dissection. The flaw, assigned **`CVE-2026-76880`**, stemmed from a protocol-valid, packet-controlled `RB-Identity` value being stored in private state and later used directly as an array index, allowing writes beyond the intended bounds of `rrc_ciphering_info.seq_no` and corruption of adjacent heap-allocated ciphering state. According to Wireshark's security advisory **`wnpa-sec-2026-88`**, the issue affects versions **4.6.0 through 4.6.7** and **4.4.0 through 4.4.17**, and was fixed in **4.6.8** and **4.4.18**. An attacker could trigger the bug by injecting a malformed packet onto the network or by convincing a user to open a crafted packet capture file; Wireshark said no active exploits were known at the time of disclosure, and the underlying fix was tracked in the project's GitLab issue and resolved with commit **`a44c8dc0`**.
Aug 21, 2026
Wireshark disclosed **CVE-2026-5653**, a heap-based buffer overflow in its DCP-ETSI protocol dissector that can crash the network protocol analyzer and cause a denial of service. The flaw affects Wireshark versions `4.6.0` through `4.6.4` and `4.4.0` through `4.4.14`, and was assigned **CWE-122** with a **CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5**. According to the advisory, an attacker could trigger the issue by injecting a malformed packet onto the network or by convincing a user to open a crafted packet capture file. Wireshark fixed the vulnerability in versions `4.6.5` and `4.4.15`; the issue was discovered by Alexandre de Oliveira, and the vendor said no active exploits were known at the time of disclosure.
Aug 21, 2026
Wireshark disclosed and patched a broad set of vulnerabilities across its packet analysis engine, protocol dissectors, codecs, decompression routines, and the `sharkd` backend, with the most serious issues including possible code execution, memory corruption, and denial of service. The release notes for **Wireshark 4.6.6** aggregate advisories `wnpa-sec-2026-08` through `wnpa-sec-2026-50`, while earlier coordinated fixes shipped in **4.6.5** and **4.4.15** for affected `4.6.0-4.6.4` and `4.4.0-4.4.14` branches. One high-severity flaw, tracked as **CVE-2026-5656**, allowed a crafted configuration-profile ZIP to escape the intended extraction path and plant a Lua plugin for execution on the next launch. Additional issues included crashes and memory-safety bugs in AMR-NB (`CVE-2026-5654`), iLBC (`CVE-2026-5657`), ASN.1 PER (`CVE-2026-6527`), DCP-ETSI (`CVE-2026-5653`, `CVE-2026-6530`), and later `sharkd` and Bluetooth AVRCP flaws that could crash the process or potentially enable control-flow hijack. Several vulnerabilities were reachable simply by opening a malicious packet capture or by parsing malformed traffic on the wire. Wireshark documented infinite-loop and CPU-exhaustion conditions in the USB HID dissector (**CVE-2026-6534**), OpenFlow v5 dissector (**CVE-2026-6521**), and LZ77 decompression path (**CVE-2026-6533**), alongside crashes in BEEP (**CVE-2026-6538**) and other protocol handlers. GitLab issue reports show researchers and fuzzing jobs repeatedly triggering heap overflows, double-free conditions, NULL dereferences, and non-advancing-offset parser failures in components such as DCP-ETSI, H.245, MIH, eDonkey, and `sharkd`, underscoring that malformed captures can destabilize both the GUI and `tshark`. Wireshark said it was not aware of active exploitation at disclosure time and urged users to update to the fixed releases.
Aug 21, 2026