CVE-2026-5401 Uncontrolled Recursion in Wireshark
An attacker can cause a denial of service in Wireshark via uncontrolled recursion in the AFP Spotlight protocol dissector.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-5401?
CVE-2026-5401 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Wireshark Wireshark, published on 30 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
AFP Spotlight protocol dissector crash in Wireshark 4.6.0 to 4.6.4 and 4.4.0 to 4.4.14 allows denial of service
Weakness: CWE-674
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-5401?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Wireshark Wireshark.
How do I fix CVE-2026-5401?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-5401 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-5401 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Wireshark Wireshark
Sources
Also known as AZL-85190, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-5401, GHSA-772w-jxjv-xc3f, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-5401.