What is CVE-2016-4076?

CVE-2016-4076 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wireshark, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2016-04-25.

How severe is CVE-2016-4076?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Wireshark

CVE-2016-4076

epan/dissectors/packet-ncp2222.inc in the NCP dissector in Wireshark 2.0.x before 2.0.3 does not properly initialize memory for search patterns, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted packet.

Published 2016-04-25 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.017 (76.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 77th percentile — 76.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.017 · newest: 0.017 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Wireshark — versions 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-284 — Improper Access Control

References

www.securitytracker.com/id/1035685 (vdb-entry)
bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi
www.wireshark.org/security/wnpa-sec-2016-19.html (Vendor Advisory)
code.wireshark.org/review/gitweb

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-4076?: CVE-2016-4076 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wireshark, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2016-04-25.
How severe is CVE-2016-4076?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.