VideoLAN security advisory 0810

[Rémi Denis-Courmont <rem () videolan org>]

Summary           : Buffer overflows in VLC RealText and CUE demuxers
Date              : November 2008
Affected versions : VLC media player 0.9.5 down to 0.5.0
ID                : VideoLAN-SA-0810
CVE reference     : None yet.


- Details -

When parsing the header of an invalid CUE image file or an invalid RealText 
subtitle file, stack-based buffer overflows might occur. 


- Impact -

If successful, a malicious third party could trigger execution of arbitrary 
code within the context of the VLC media player. 


- Threat mitigation -

Exploitation of this issue requires the user to explicitly open a specially 
crafted file. 


- Workarounds -

The user should refrain from opening files from untrusted third parties or 
accessing untrusted remote sites (or disable the VLC browser plugins), until 
the patch is applied. 
Alternatively, the VCD and Subtitles plugins (libvcd_plugin.* and 
libsubtitle_plugin.*) can be removed manually from the VLC plugin 
installation directory. However, this will prevent use of subtitle files and 
Video CD altogether.


- Solution -

VLC media player 0.9.6 addresses this issue. Patches for older versions are 
available from the official VLC source code repository 0.9-bugfix branch. 


- Credits -

These vulnerabilities were reported by Tobias Klein. 


- References -

The VideoLAN project
        http://www.videolan.org/ 
Tobias Klein
        http://www.trapkit.de/advisories/ 


- History -

3 November 2008
        Vendor notification.
4 November 2008
        Internal patches for VLC development version and 0.9-bugfix tree.
5 November 2008
        Initial security advisory.
        VLC media player 0.9.6 released.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont,
on behalf of the VideoLAN project