In Wireshark through 2.6.2, the create_app_running_mutex function in wsutil/file_util.c calls SetSecurityDescriptorDacl to set a NULL DACL,…

published 2018-07-20 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-6355

cvss: 7.5; version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.2%; EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 68%
public exploits: 0; none known

In Wireshark through 2.6.2, the create_app_running_mutex function in wsutil/file_util.c calls SetSecurityDescriptorDacl to set a NULL DACL, which allows attackers to modify the access control arbitrarily.

Patch / fix

distros 1

wireshark Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.6.3-1~ubuntu14.04.1
wireshark Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.6.3-1~ubuntu16.04.1
wireshark Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.6.3-1~ubuntu18.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-14438

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-14438 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.6

wireshark: Improper Access Control in create_app_running_mutex function in wsutil/file_util.c

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 wireshark, wireshark-gnome Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 wireshark, wireshark-gnome Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 wireshark, wireshark-cli
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 68% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.0	7.5	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD	2.0	5.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

Classification

Weakness

CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

bugs.wireshark.org /bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=14921
issue-tracking, vendor-advisory
securityfocus.com /bid/104876
vdb-entry, third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2018-14438
NVD CVE-2018-14438

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary