Description
plugins/demux/libmkv_plugin.dll in VideoLAN VLC Media Player 2.0.7, and possibly other versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted MKV file, possibly involving an integer overflow and out-of-bounds read or heap-based buffer overflow, or an uncaught exception. NOTE: the vendor disputes the severity and claimed vulnerability type of this issue, stating "This PoC crashes VLC, indeed, but does nothing more... this is not an integer overflow error, but an uncaught exception and I doubt that it is exploitable. This uncaught exception makes VLC abort, not execute random code, on my Linux 64bits machine." A PoC posted by the original researcher shows signs of an attacker-controlled out-of-bounds read, but the affected instruction does not involve a register that directly influences control flow
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 | vlc | 2.0.7-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | vlc | 2.0.7-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | vlc | 2.0.7-1 | — |
References
- http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2013/More-lies-from-Secunia
- 61032 vdb-entry
- 20130710 VLC media player MKV Parsing POC mailing-list
- 52956 third-party-advisory
- 20130710 Re: VLC media player MKV Parsing POC mailing-list
- 20130710 Re: VLC media player MKV Parsing POC mailing-list
- http://secunia.com/blog/372/