Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessDeliver media with non-BMP Unicode metadata
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ExploitVictim transcodes/remuxes to ASF via asfmux
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ExecutionUndersized UTF-16LE buffer overflows on heap
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ImpactProcess crash or limited memory corruption
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Bounds checking, write limits
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires an application that invokes GStreamer's asfmux plugin to mux, remux, or transcode media into the ASF/WMV container AND preserves string metadata tags from the attacker-supplied source. The malicious metadata must contain at least one Unicode code point outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (e.g. an emoji or supplementary-plane CJK character) to trigger the surrogate-pair miscalculation. Limiting factors that reduce realistic risk: the attack is local (AV:L) - the file must reach a local processing pipeline; it requires user interaction (UI:R) - a victim must actively run the ASF conversion; and it depends on the uncommon workflow of writing to the legacy Microsoft ASF format with metadata retention, which is not a default or widespread operation. |
| Impact | This is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) heap out-of-bounds write (CWE-787) whose real-world risk is modest and bounded by a narrow exploitation path rather than its memory-corruption primitive. The CVSS vector itself tempers the risk: AV:L means no remote network reachability (the malicious file must be processed locally) and UI:R means a victim must actively run a transcode/remux operation, while PR:N confirms no authentication is needed once that workflow is triggered. Impact is skewed toward availability (A:H, i.e. crashes/DoS) with only limited integrity impact (I:L) and no confidentiality impact (C:N), consistent with the description's framing of 'denial of service or limited memory corruption' rather than reliable code execution. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no POC were provided in the intelligence set, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation. The practical limiting factor - exploitation requires an application that specifically muxes/remuxes to the legacy ASF/WMV container while preserving attacker-controlled Unicode metadata - makes this far lower priority than its CWE-787 class would suggest in isolation. Note: although the product (GStreamer) is broadly deployed, the specific asfmux code path is rarely exercised, so the raw CVSS should not be read as fleet-wide exposure. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a media file whose string metadata tags (e.g. title or artist) contain non-BMP Unicode characters such as emoji, then delivers it to a victim who runs a conversion pipeline that remuxes or transcodes to ASF format while preserving metadata. When GStreamer's asfmux plugin under-allocates the UTF-16LE buffer (2 bytes assumed per code point instead of 4 for surrogate pairs), the conversion writes past the heap allocation, crashing the process or corrupting adjacent memory. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data, and exploitation requires the victim to actively perform the ASF conversion (UI:R). |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 14, 2026
Heap out-of-bounds write in the GStreamer ASF muxer plugin (asfmux) occurs when string metadata tags containing Unicode characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane - such as emoji or supplementary-plane CJK characters - are written into an ASF/WMV container, because the buffer size calculation assumes 2 bytes per code point while UTF-16LE surrogate pairs actually require 4. Exploitation requires a local pipeline that muxes, remuxes, or transcodes attacker-supplied media into ASF while preserving metadata (AV:L, UI:R), enabling a user-assisted heap corruption that can cause a denial of service or limited memory corruption. Rated CVSS 6.1 with C:N/I:L/A:H, this is a medium-severity issue with a narrow attack path; no public exploit code and no confirmed active exploitation were identified at time of analysis, and affected packages are tracked for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch version is confirmed in the available data; administrators should consult the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-100231 and the Bugzilla entry at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2541468 for updated GStreamer package versions and errata as they are published, and should apply distribution updates for GStreamer on RHEL 7, 8, 9, and 10 when available. Because public exploit code and active exploitation were not identified, remediation can be prioritized against the assessed CVSS 6.1 and the narrow local/user-interaction prerequisite. Until a fixed package is applied, the most effective compensating control is to prevent non-BMP metadata from reaching the ASF muxer: strip or normalize string metadata (removing or rejecting emoji and supplementary-plane characters) before any remux/transcode step, with the trade-off that legitimate tags may be altered or dropped. Alternatively, disable or remove the asfmux element from GStreamer installations where ASF output is not required, accepting loss of ASF/WMV write capability, or restrict who can invoke ASF conversion pipelines and block untrusted media from being processed by local transcode services, which reduces the reachable attack surface but does not eliminate the underlying memory-safety defect.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerable component is the ASF multiplexer (asfmux) in the GStreamer multimedia framework, which serializes metadata properties into the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format container. ASF stores string metadata as UTF-16LE, so characters above U+FFFF must be encoded as 4-byte surrogate pairs. The plugin's allocation logic (CWE-787, out-of-bounds write) computes the destination buffer length by counting Unicode code points and multiplying by 2, which under-allocates whenever any non-BMP character is present; when GStreamer's actual UTF-16LE conversion writes the resulting surrogate pairs, it overruns the heap buffer. The root cause class is an incorrect length/size computation feeding a write operation, a classic mismatch between expected and actual encoded length. CPE data ties affected deployments to GStreamer packages shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10 (cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_7/8/9/10), so impact is realized through the GStreamer distribution bundled with those platforms rather than as a standalone product. The assessed vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H indicates a local, unauthenticated-actor-triggered attack requiring victim interaction, with no confidentiality impact and high availability impact.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Local file processing that a victim must trigger (AV:L, UI:R) with no auth (PR:N); trivially crafted non-BMP input (AC:L); heap overflow yields crash/DoS (A:H) plus limited corruption (I:L), no disclosure (C:N).
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in the GStreamer multimedia framework's ASF muxer plugin (asfmux). When writing string metadata tags containing Unicode characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (such as emoji) to an ASF container, the plugin incorrectly calculates the buffer size needed for the UTF-16LE representation. The size calculation assumes each Unicode code point requires 2 bytes, but non-BMP characters require 4 bytes (surrogate pairs). This leads to a heap out-of-bounds write when the actual UTF-16LE conversion is written into the undersized buffer. An attacker could exploit this by providing media with crafted metadata tags to an application that transcodes or remuxes to ASF format while preserving metadata, potentially causing a denial of service or limited memory corruption.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.
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
EUVD-2026-100953
GHSA-qxfv-rjq3-mg7m
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB