Skip to content
Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2017-12989 json

The RESP parser in tcpdump before 4.9.2 could enter an infinite loop due to a bug in print-resp.c:resp_get_length().

published 2017-09-14 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-4507

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.3%
EPSS 2.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 83%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The RESP parser in tcpdump before 4.9.2 could enter an infinite loop due to a bug in print-resp.c:resp_get_length().

Patch / fix

  • tcpdump Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.9.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-12989

  • tcpdump Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.9.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • tcpdump Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.9.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-12989

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

  • tcpdump RHEL 7 14:4.9.2-3.el7

red hat advisories RHEA-2018:0705

  • tcpdump SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +4 more 4.9.2-14.5.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:2854-1

  • tcpdump openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.99.1-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11425-1

  • tcpdump Arch Linux 4.9.2-1

arch linux advisories AVG-361

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-2017-12989 updated cvss 6.5

tcpdump: Infinite loop due to a bug in print-resp.c:resp_get_length() in RESP parser

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 tcpdump Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 tcpdump
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) tcpdump 4.9.2-3.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) tcpdump 4.9.2-3.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) tcpdump 4.9.2-3.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) tcpdump 4.9.2-3.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) tcpdump 4.9.2-3.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHEA-2018:0705

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

2.31% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 83% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

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:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.