Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Wireshark, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service) and potentially compromise a vulnerable system.

1) An error when processing certain pcap-ng files can be exploited to free an uninitialised pointer.

2) An error when handling certain packet lengths can be exploited to cause a crash via a specially crafted pcap-ng file.

3) An error when processing Nokia DCT3 trace files can be exploited to cause a buffer overflow via a specially crafted file.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may allow execution of arbitrary code.

4) An error in the "dissect_ms_compressed_string()" (SMB dissector) and "dissect_mscldap_string()" (LDAP dissector) functions can be exploited to cause a crash due to an infinite recursive function call.

5) An error when processing LDAP Filter strings can be exploited to cause a crash by consuming memory resources via large filter strings.

Vulnerabilities #1 through #5 are reported in versions prior to 1.2.15 and prior to 1.4.4.

6) A validation error in the "dissect_6lowpan_iphc()" function (epan/dissectors/packet-6lowpan.c) in the 6LoWPAN dissector when processing certain lengths can be exploited to cause a heap-based buffer overflow of a single byte resulting in a crash.

7) A NULL pointer dereference error within the "dissect_ntlmssp_string()" function in epan/dissectors/packet-ntlmssp.c when parsing a pcap file can be exploited to cause a crash.

Vulnerabilities #6 and #7 are reported in versions prior to 1.4.4 only.

Solution
Update to version 1.2.15 and 1.4.4.

Provided and/or discovered by
3, 7) Reported by the vendor.

The vendor also credits:
1, 2) Huzaifa Sidhpurwala, Red Hat Security Response Team.
4) joernchen, Phenoelit.
5) Xiaopeng Zhang of Fortinet's Fortiguard Labs.
6) Paul Makowski, SEI/CERT.

Changelog
Further details available to Secunia VIM customers

Original Advisory
http://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2011-03.html
http://www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2011-04.html
http://www.wireshark.org/docs/relnotes/wireshark-1.4.4.html

Other references
Further details available to Secunia VIM customers

Deep Links
Links available to Secunia VIM customers