Summary : Buffer overflows in freetype renderer and HTML subtitle parser Date : January 2013 Affected versions : VLC media player 2.0.4 and earlier ID : VideoLAN-SA-1301 CVE reference : None Details When parsing a specially crafted file, a buffer overflow might occur. Impact If successful, a malicious third party could trigger an invalid memory access, leading to a crash of VLC or arbitratry code execution. Threat mitigation Exploitation of this issue requires the user to explicitly open a specially crafted file. In the case of the subtitle vulnerability, subtitles must be enabled. ASLR and DEP help reduce exposure, but may be bypassed. 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. Solution VLC media player 2.0.5 addresses this issue. Patches for older versions are available from the official VLC source code repository 2.0. Credits This vulnerability was reported by Aliz Hammond. References The VideoLAN project http://www.videolan.org/ VLC official GIT repository http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git History 17 November 2012 Patch for VLC development version. 7 December 2012 Security vulnerability disclosed. 14 December 2012 VLC 2.0.5 released. 3 January 2013 Security advisory published Scott Walsh, on behalf of the VideoLAN project