CVE-2024-2397: infinite loop in the PPP printer of tcpdump

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.2 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-04-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-835

Description

Due to a bug in packet data buffers management, the PPP printer in tcpdump can enter an infinite loop when reading a crafted DLT_PPP_SERIAL .pcap savefile. This problem does not affect any tcpdump release, but it affected the git master branch from 2023-06-05 to 2024-03-21.

References

https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/commit/b9811ef5bb1b7d45a90e042f81f3aaf233c8bcb2
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/GEZRGR3QCW2ZNFIAWMZZOG4ZLFLFNG2M/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/HUUI2MBVHFENXNBCHDQZP2RBBA2VD5HG/
https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/commit/b9811ef5bb1b7d45a90e042f81f3aaf233c8bcb2
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/GEZRGR3QCW2ZNFIAWMZZOG4ZLFLFNG2M/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/HUUI2MBVHFENXNBCHDQZP2RBBA2VD5HG/
https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-security/2024-September/000298.html

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