CVE-2024-2397 | infinite loop in the PPP printer of tcpdump

Due to a bug in packet data buffers management, the PPP printer in tcpdump can enter an infinite loop when reading a crafted DLT_PPP_SERIAL .pcap savefile. This problem does not affect any tcpdump release, but it affected the git master branch from 2023-06-05 to 2024-03-21.

Published: 2024-04-12 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-2397 is rated Low Risk (32.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2024-2397

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.02% 0.29% +0.27%
2 2025-11-21 0.10% 0.02% -0.08%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.10% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-2397

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.5 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-2397

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-2397

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2024-2397 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (tcpdump), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-2397
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-2397
suse medium CVE-2024-2397 severity moderate: SUSE including 3 source package names (tcpdump, tcpdump-4.99.5-1.1, tcpdump-4.99.5-160000.2.2), 30 product×package rows across 30 product lines (SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP5, … (30 product lines)): Known Not Affected 28, Fixed 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-2397/
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-2397 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (tcpdump), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-2397

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-2397

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2024-2397

cvelogic Threat Intelligence