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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2017-5846 Gstreamer CVE debrief

CVE-2017-5846 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in GStreamer’s gst-plugins-ugly ASF demuxer. When parsing certain video files, gst_asf_demux_process_ext_stream_props could perform an invalid memory read and crash. The issue was publicly disclosed on 2017-02-09, and the NVD record was later updated on 2026-05-13. The fixed version referenced in the vendor release notes is 1.10.3.

Vendor
Gstreamer
Product
Unknown
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-09
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-09
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Security and platform teams that ship GStreamer gst-plugins-ugly, especially products that parse untrusted media files. Linux distro maintainers, multimedia application developers, and embedded vendors using ASF/video ingestion pipelines should prioritize review.

Technical summary

The flaw is in gst/asfdemux/gstasfdemux.c, inside gst_asf_demux_process_ext_stream_props(). According to the record, malformed ASF content with an unexpected number of languages can trigger an invalid memory read, resulting in a crash. NVD classifies the weakness as CWE-125 (out-of-bounds read) and scores it CVSS 3.0 5.5 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Defensive priority

Medium. Prioritize if untrusted media files are processed on user-facing systems or services where a crash would disrupt availability.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade GStreamer to 1.10.3 or later, or apply the vendor/downstream backport that addresses this flaw.
  • Inventory systems that include gst-plugins-ugly and identify any ASF/video parsing paths exposed to untrusted input.
  • Reduce exposure by limiting automatic processing of untrusted media files and isolating media parsing workloads where practical.
  • Use downstream advisories and release notes to confirm the fixed package version for your distribution or platform.
  • Monitor crash reports and abnormal terminations in media-processing components that use the affected demuxer.

Evidence notes

Supported by the NVD record, which lists the vulnerable range as GStreamer up to 1.10.2 and the CVSS 3.0 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H with CWE-125. The source corpus also includes the GStreamer 1.10.3 release notes, GNOME bug 777937, Debian security advisory DSA-3821, and Gentoo/ Debian LTS references indicating downstream remediation.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2017-5846 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-5846

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2017-5846 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5846

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.