FFmpeg before commit 1c10bcc contains a heap buffer overflow in the RIST protocol reader (libavformat/librist.c). librist_read() ignored its size argument and copied the full received payload length into the caller-provided destination buffer, overflowing it when the payload exceeds the destination size. This is reachable via the async:rist:// URL scheme, where the async wrapper supplies a smaller buffer than the received payload. A remote RIST sender can trigger the overflow by sending a packet whose payload exceeds the caller buffer size.
Weakness
A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | devel | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | esm-apps/jammy | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | esm-apps/noble | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | esm-apps/resolute | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | jammy | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | noble | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | resolute | * |
| Ffmpeg | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
Potential Mitigations
- Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.
- D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.
- Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.
- Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.
- For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].