CVE-2026-18238
MediumCVSS 5.0Summary
The rpcap client code that processes a RPCAP_MSG_PACKET message received from the server incorrectly validates its headers. A malicious server can send a crafted message and cause the client to treat up to 20 bytes of the client process memory beyond the end of the buffer as if it was a part of the captured packet.
Risk Assessment
This can lead to disclosure of sensitive data from the client process memory or crashes, posing risks to confidentiality and integrity.
Recommendation
Update libpcap (which includes the rpcap client) to a patched version if available; avoid connecting to untrusted rpcap servers.
Other vulnerabilities in libpcap
See all- CVE-2026-6554Medium
The libpcap BPF interpreter treats the offset in the 'ja L' BPF instruction as a signed integer to implement looping via backward jumps, but it does not limit the number of loop iterations. In particular uncommon use cases a crafted filter program can cause the interpreter to loop infinitely.
- CVE-2026-6244Medium
The libpcap BPF interpreter for the 'div #k' and 'mod #k' ALU instructions does not check whether the immediate value is zero. In particular uncommon use cases a crafted filter program can cause a division by zero.
- CVE-2026-31912Medium
The libpcap BPF interpreter detects neither reaching the end of the filter program buffer due to lack of a return instruction nor executing a jump instruction with an offset that translates to a pointer outside of the buffer. In particular uncommon use cases a crafted filter program can cause the interpreter to try reading the OS process memory in the 32GiB around the buffer on 64-bit architectures and in the entire address space on 32-bit architectures.
- CVE-2026-31911Medium
The libpcap BPF interpreter calls abort() if it encounters a BPF instruction that has an invalid opcode. In particular uncommon use cases a crafted filter program can terminate the OS process.
- CVE-2026-18313Medium
rpcapd can allocate up to 65536 bytes per each RPCAP_MSG_UPDATEFILTER_REQ or RPCAP_MSG_STARTCAP_REQ message received from the client, but it never frees the memory, so it leaks memory even under normal use. A malicious client can cause the server to leak memory substantially faster.
- CVE-2026-0799High
In BPF instructions that load/store a value from/to a scratch memory register the register index is an unsigned 32-bit integer and must not exceed 15, but libpcap BPF interpreter does not validate the value. In particular uncommon use cases a crafted filter program can cause the interpreter to try reading and writing the OS process memory in the 16GiB starting at the current stack frame on 64-bit architectures and in the entire address space on 32-bit architectures.
- CVE-2011-1935Critical
In pcap-linux.c in libpcap 1.1.1 before commit ea9432fabdf4b33cbc76d9437200e028f1c47c93, setting snaplen may truncate packets, allowing remote attackers to send arbitrary data while avoiding detection via crafted packets.
Original NVD description (English source)
The rpcap client code that processes a RPCAP_MSG_PACKET message received from the server incorrectly validates its headers. A malicious server can send a crafted message and cause the client to treat up to 20 bytes of the client process memory beyond the end of the buffer as if it was a part of the captured packet.