# CVE-2015-6241: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Wireshark via crafted packets due to improper data structure termination in the protocol tree implementation.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/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:** 24 Aug 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-6241, GHSA-92m2-qw95-6frf, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-6241

## What is CVE-2015-6241?

CVE-2015-6241 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Oracle Solaris, published on 24 Aug 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The proto_tree_add_bytes_item function in epan/proto.c in the protocol-tree implementation in Wireshark 1.12.x before 1.12.7 does not properly terminate a data structure after a failure to locate a number within a string, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted packet.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-6241?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Oracle Solaris, Wireshark Wireshark.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-6241?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-6241 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-6241 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Oracle Solaris

- [CVE-2020-14871](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14871/): Oracle Solaris and Zettabyte File System (ZFS) Unspecified (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-3010](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3010/): Oracle Solaris Privilege Escalation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-46978](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46978/): Missing authorization in Oracle Solaris (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2017-3623](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-3623/): Other in Solaris Operating System (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2014-0397](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0397/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-6241 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-6241 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Oracle Solaris, published on 24 Aug 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-2015-6241 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Oracle Solaris. 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-2015-6241/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6241/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-6241
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6241
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-6241

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6241/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.