Description
wb2osz/direwolf (Dire Wolf) versions up to and including 1.8.1, prior to commit 3658a87, contain a reachable assertion vulnerability in the APRS MIC-E decoder function aprs_mic_e() located in src/decode_aprs.c. When processing a specially crafted AX.25 frame containing a MIC-E message with an empty or truncated comment field, the application triggers an unhandled assertion checking for a non-empty comment. This assertion failure causes immediate process termination, allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service by sending malformed APRS traffic.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| wb2osz | Dire Wolf | ≤ 1.8.1 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | direwolf | 1.8.1+dfsg-2 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | direwolf | No fix yet | — |
References
- https://github.com/marlinkcyber/advisories/blob/main/advisories/MCSAID-2025-010-direwolf-stack-buffer-overflow-kiss-frame.md technical-description exploit
- https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/issues/618 issue-tracking
- https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/commit/3658a87 patch
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/wb2osz-direwolf-reachable-assertion-dos third-party-advisory