# CVE-2015-6243: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Wireshark by sending crafted packets that exploit a flaw in dissector table searches for empty strings.

- **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-2015-6243, GHSA-wmr9-678w-f2gh, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-6243

## What is CVE-2015-6243?

CVE-2015-6243 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Oracle Linux, 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 dissector-table implementation in epan/packet.c in Wireshark 1.12.x before 1.12.7 mishandles table searches for empty strings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted packet, related to the (1) dissector_get_string_handle and (2) dissector_get_default_string_handle functions.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-6243?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, Wireshark Wireshark.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-6243?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-6243 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-6243 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Oracle Linux

- [CVE-2015-5287](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5287/): Red Hat Automatic Bug Reporting Tool Privilege Escalation (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-5408](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-5408/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-1714](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1714/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2015-3812](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3812/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2015-2328](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2328/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-6243 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-6243 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Oracle Linux, 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-2015-6243 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Oracle 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-2015-6243/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6243/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-6243
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6243
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-6243

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6243/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.