An IEEE C37.118 Synchrophasor protocol dissector in Wireshark releases memory only after its effective lifetime expires, creating a memory leak. This flaw can be triggered by repeatedly feeding crafted IEEE C37.118 packets, exhausting system memory and forcing the application to crash. The weakness is a typical case of improper resource management, as identified by CWE‑401 and CWE‑772.

Wireshark Foundation’s Wireshark distribution is affected. Vulnerable versions include 4.6.0 through 4.6.8 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.18. All other Wireshark releases are unaffected.

The CVSS score of 5.5 indicates a medium severity risk. The EPSS score < 1% shows that the probability of exploit in the wild is low, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. However, the denial of service can severely impact operations that rely on continuous packet capture, especially in environments that process large volumes of IEEE C37.118 traffic. The attack likely requires an adversary to send crafted packets to a vulnerable Wireshark process, which is plausible in insider or compromised network scenarios.