CVE-2026-73324
Description
A flaw was found in VLC media player. A remote attacker operating a hostile server can exploit a heap out-of-bounds read vulnerability. This occurs when the media player processes an unterminated Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) response line, causing it to read beyond the allocated buffer. Consequently, sensitive heap memory from the client can be disclosed to the attacker, as these disclosed bytes are retained and sent back to the server in subsequent requests.
Statement
Red Hat Product Security has determined that this vulnerability does not affect any currently supported Red Hat product. This assessment may evolve based on further analysis and discovery. For more information about this vulnerability and the products it affects, please see the linked references.
Mitigation
Users should avoid opening untrusted `realrtsp` URLs or playlist entries from untrusted sources in VLC media player. This vulnerability requires interaction with a hostile RTSP server.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
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