Microsoft is providing notification of the discovery and remediation of a vulnerability affecting Wireshark version 1.6.1 and earlier. Microsoft discovered and disclosed the vulnerability under coordinated vulnerability disclosure to the affected vendor, Wireshark. Wireshark has remediated the vulnerability in their software.
A vulnerability exists in the way that Wireshark handles opening of PCAP and CAP files that could allow an attacker to execute an arbitrary script. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could execute a script with the same user rights as the logged-on user. If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
Microsoft Vulnerability Research reported this issue to and coordinated with Wireshark to ensure remediation of this issue. The vulnerability has been assigned the entry CVE-2011-3360, in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list. For more information, including information about updates from Wireshark, see the Wireshark download page.