# CVE-2015-2188: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Wireshark via crafted packets due to improper data structure initialization in the WCP dissector.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 Mar 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-2188, GHSA-m5wv-rfcq-fg25, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-2188

## What is CVE-2015-2188?

CVE-2015-2188 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 8 Mar 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

epan/dissectors/packet-wcp.c in the WCP dissector in Wireshark 1.10.x before 1.10.13 and 1.12.x before 1.12.4 does not properly initialize a data structure, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and application crash) via a crafted packet that is improperly handled during decompression.

Weakness: CWE-19

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-2188?

It affects 6 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Mageia Mageia, Opensuse Opensuse, Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, Wireshark Wireshark.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-2188?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-2188 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-2188 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-2188 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-2188 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 8 Mar 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-2188 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2188/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2188/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-2188
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-2188
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-2188

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2188/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.