Gstreamer
CVE-2024-47538
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Stack buffer bounds checking
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | Despite the critical CVSS score of 9.8 indicating network-exploitable, no-authentication-required remote code execution, several factors suggest a more nuanced risk profile. The attack vector requires a victim to process a maliciously crafted Vorbis audio file, making it less likely than vulnerabilities requiring no user interaction. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating no confirmed exploitation in the wild. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) suggests high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability if successfully exploited. Real-world exploitation would likely target applications that automatically process untrusted media files, such as media servers, video conferencing systems, or content management platforms. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious Vorbis audio file claiming to have more than 64 channels and hosts it on a website or sends it via email attachment. When a vulnerable application using GStreamer processes this file, the decoder writes beyond the stack buffer boundaries, allowing the attacker to overwrite the return address and redirect execution to malicious code. No proof-of-concept code is publicly referenced, but the straightforward nature of stack buffer overflows makes exploitation feasible for skilled attackers targeting high-value systems that automatically process media files. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 17, 2026
A stack buffer overflow vulnerability exists in GStreamer's Vorbis audio decoder that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code without authentication. The flaw occurs when processing malicious Vorbis audio files with more than 64 channels, leading to stack memory corruption and potential control over the instruction pointer (EIP). While not currently in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, the vulnerability has a critical CVSS score of 9.8 and patches are available.
RemediationAI
Upgrade GStreamer to version 1.24.10 or later, which contains the fix for this vulnerability. The patch is available at https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer/-/merge_requests/8035.patch and should be applied immediately for systems processing untrusted media content. Until patching is possible, implement strict input validation to reject Vorbis files claiming more than 64 audio channels, isolate media processing services in sandboxed environments, and avoid processing untrusted media files in security-sensitive contexts. Organizations should reference the official security advisory at https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/security/sa-2024-0022.html for comprehensive patching guidance.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
GStreamer is a widely-used open source multimedia framework for constructing media processing pipelines, identified by CPE cpe:2.3:a:gstreamer:gstreamer:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*. The vulnerability manifests as a classic stack buffer overflow (CWE-121) in the vorbis_handle_identification_packet function within gstvorbisdec.c, where a fixed-size stack array of 64 elements is overflowed when processing Vorbis audio streams claiming to have more than 64 channels. This allows attackers to overwrite critical stack data including the return address and the GstAudioInfo structure, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution in the context of the application using GStreamer.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from GitHub Advisory · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorGitHub Advisory
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionGitHub Advisory
GStreamer is a library for constructing graphs of media-handling components. A stack-buffer overflow has been detected in the vorbis_handle_identification_packet function within gstvorbisdec.c. The position array is a stack-allocated buffer of size 64. If vd->vi.channels exceeds 64, the for loop will write beyond the boundaries of the position array. The value written will always be GST_AUDIO_CHANNEL_POSITION_NONE. This vulnerability allows someone to overwrite the EIP address allocated in the stack. Additionally, this bug can overwrite the GstAudioInfo info structure. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.24.10.
Executive ViewAI
Organizations using GStreamer face critical risk from CVE-2024-47538, a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability rated CVSS 9.8. Exploitation could allow attackers to corrupt memory, crash the application, or potentially execute arbitrary code. A patch is available and should be applied immediately given the critical severity.
Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Enable ASLR and DEP where available; (2) Implement network segmentation; (3) Monitor for exploitation indicators.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
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.
Affected Products (CPE)GitHub Advisory
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
Exploit-DB