Gstreamer
CVE-2016-10198
MEDIUM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Bounds checking, read limits
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Collection The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | Multiple risk signals indicate this is a real but contained priority issue. The CVSS 3.0 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) shows low attack complexity and local attack vector with required user interaction, limiting exposure compared to remote network vectors. The EPSS score of 0.76% (73rd percentile) suggests relatively low likelihood of active exploitation in the wild, positioning this below typical urgent patching thresholds. No evidence of KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerability) status or public proof-of-concept is indicated in the references, though a patch has been available since February 2017. The vulnerability cannot be leveraged for data theft or system compromise (confidentiality and integrity unaffected), making it primarily a denial of service concern. Organizations should prioritize patching based on the prevalence of GStreamer in their environment (particularly media servers, transcoding services, and desktop applications) rather than treating this as critical infrastructure risk. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious AAC audio file with invalid frame headers or truncated metadata that triggers out-of-bounds memory reading in the parser. A user opens this file in a GStreamer-based media player or an application processes it through a GStreamer-backed transcoding pipeline, causing the application to read memory at an invalid address and crash, resulting in denial of service. The low attack complexity and requirement only for user interaction (opening a file) makes this a practical attack vector against desktop media players or web-based media platforms accepting user-supplied audio files, though no public proof-of-concept has been widely documented. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 17, 2026
An invalid memory read vulnerability exists in the gst_aac_parse_sink_setcaps function within GStreamer's AAC audio parser component (gst-plugins-good). Remote attackers can trigger a denial of service by providing a specially crafted AAC audio file, causing the application to crash. With an EPSS score of 0.76% (73rd percentile) and low attack complexity requiring only user interaction to open a malicious file, this vulnerability represents a moderate practical risk despite the moderate CVSS 5.5 score.
RemediationAI
Upgrade GStreamer to version 1.10.3 or later immediately. Users should reference the official GStreamer 1.10.3 release notes at https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/releases/1.10/#1.10.3 for download and installation instructions. For distribution users, apply vendor-supplied patches: Debian/Ubuntu users should install security updates from DSA-3820 or later; Red Hat/CentOS users should apply RHSA-2017:2060 or subsequent updates. If immediate patching is impossible, implement application-level controls by restricting GStreamer usage to trusted audio sources and disabling automatic media playback from untrusted origins. Organizations running media servers or transcoding services should prioritize this update as a high-priority maintenance task given the widespread deployment of GStreamer in audio/video processing pipelines.
Affects your stack
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability resides in GStreamer's audio parsing infrastructure, specifically in the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) parser module within gst-plugins-good. The affected component (gst/audioparsers/gstaacparse.c) handles the capability negotiation during audio stream setup. The root cause is classified as CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read), indicating improper bounds checking when reading memory during AAC file parsing. When the gst_aac_parse_sink_setcaps function processes a malformed AAC file with invalid metadata or frame headers, it fails to validate buffer boundaries before dereferencing memory, leading to an out-of-bounds read. GStreamer versions prior to 1.10.3 are affected, as confirmed via CPE cpe:2.3:a:gstreamer:gstreamer. The vulnerability impacts all applications built on or linked against the vulnerable gst-plugins-good library for audio playback functionality.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
The gst_aac_parse_sink_setcaps function in gst/audioparsers/gstaacparse.c in gst-plugins-good in GStreamer before 1.10.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (invalid memory read and crash) via a crafted audio file.
Executive ViewAI
Organizations using gst/audioparsers/gstaacparse.c in gst-plugins-good in GStreamer should be aware of moderate risk from CVE-2016-10198, a out-of-bounds read vulnerability rated CVSS 5.5. Exploitation could cause memory corruption or application crashes. A patch is available and should be applied during regular vulnerability management.
Apply vendor patch. If patching is delayed: enable ASLR/DEP, apply network segmentation.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
VulDB
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
Heap-based buffer overflow in the flx_decode_delta_fli function in gst/flx/gstflxdec.c in the FLIC decoder in GStreamer
Heap-based buffer overflow in the flx_decode_delta_fli function in gst/flx/gstflxdec.c in the FLIC decoder in GStreamer
Heap-based buffer overflow in the flx_decode_delta_fli function in gst/flx/gstflxdec.c in the FLIC decoder in GStreamer
The FLIC decoder in GStreamer before 1.10.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write an
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in GStreamer's RTSP connection parser that allows remote attackers to
A heap buffer over-read vulnerability exists in GStreamer's isomp4 plugin that allows reading past allocated memory boun
An integer overflow vulnerability in the GStreamer multimedia framework's matroska demuxer allows heap memory corruption
A critical integer overflow vulnerability in GStreamer's qtdemux element allows attackers to trigger denial of service o
A critical integer overflow vulnerability in the GStreamer multimedia framework's Matroska (MKV) demuxer can cause denia
An integer overflow vulnerability in GStreamer's Matroska demuxer can cause denial of service or potentially heap memory
An integer overflow vulnerability in GStreamer's AVI demux element allows attackers to trigger a heap overwrite when par
A heap overflow vulnerability exists in GStreamer's matroskaparse element due to an integer overflow in the gst_matroska
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB