Out-of-Bounds Read in Ffmpeg (CVE-2017-16840)
Summary
Vulnerability in Ffmpeg (CVE-2017-16840). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
The VC-2 Video Compression encoder in FFmpeg 3.0 and 3.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) because of incorrect buffer padding for non-Haar wavelets, related to libavcodec/vc2enc.c and libavcodec/vc2enc_dwt.c.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2017-16840 has been found in Ffmpeg.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 9.8/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Ffmpeg CVE-2017-16840" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2017-16840 (Ffmpeg) — CWE-125 / CVSS v3 9.8
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
Out-of-bounds read (CWE-125) exists in Ffmpeg.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Ffmpeg.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Ffmpeg' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'Ffmpeg' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
Ffmpegを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16840 ffmpeg Fixed in: 7:3.4.1-1
References
- advisory securityfocus.com
- patch github.com
- patch debian.org
- web git.videolan.org